We need to fix landfills – here's how

Are there issues with dumpsites and landfills where you live?

I live in a small town in North Carolina, US that apparently lost its recycling solution within the past few years. It still collects recycling separately, but it is an illusion. They stopped accepting glass years ago for that reason. Now, recycling waste, including cardboard and paper, is dumped into the landfill. I have often wondered why we continue to separate anything and hope it's because they are actively searching for a solution. However, it feels like we are going backwards.

I'm a waste reduction specialist. The solution is to reuse FIRST rather than recycle. WE need refillable food packaging, not disposable. We had this in the recent past. It's achievable. It's cheaper. It is the ONLY sustainable solution. Recycling is NOT the only solution. It's a low priority in terms of sustainable development

In Poland, we're so modern that we store our trash in the cloud.

No one is talking about our consumerism. It seems we have evolved into mindless consuming not thinking twice about the garbage we create daily. Garbage created in the fast food industry is astounding. I witness the garbage bagged and going out the door with no concern or cares. A conversation needs to happen surrounding this

"waste to energy" is more than burning methane. It's also burning trash, i.e. Sweden burns most of thrash which was not possible to reuse or recycle. Volume of thrash ending in landfills is just a few percent comparing to input. Additionally it is solid and not soluble on water. This should be the way.

All of my food waste goes into my garden. Grow our own food in our neighborhoods and schools.

I'll be willing to bet there's a lot more landfills in the US. In Southeast Georgia where I'm from there are several superfund sites, several of which are small dumps from old chemical factories where they made their own landfill to dump their own waste. I'd hate to wonder how many small independent landfills popped up like that that aren't documented.

In my neighborhood in Budapest 8, they started community composting a few years ago. It's a massive urban center with 10-12 story buildings so I was really happy for the initiative as selective garbage collection is not a thing here. The compost gets reused around the district to plant flowers, shrubs, new trees.

Recycling is expensive. Reuse is better, for example by putting a deposit on packaging such as bottles. In theory, prevention is quite simple, but the political will is lacking. Individual citizens have little room for maneuver here. Politicians must regulate this through laws. The negative effects of landfills can be minimized by drying the garbage so that it does not ferment and by banning toxic substances in the materials. Organic waste could also be disposed of in the sewage system without causing any ecological harm, but you would need 1) a shredder and 2) enough water. This would actually work with plastic waste too. This would save you having to have garbage trucks on the road and garbage cans in the city and garbage rooms in buildings. Disposal would be much easier and there would be no smell anywhere.

we 100% need to fix landfills. and one place people should turn to and learn from is Singapore. they have the best trash system in the world!!! and Singapore is CLEAN AF!

For how smart human beings are and for all the amazing things we have designed, I can't beleive a landfill site was one of them. I struggle to believe recycling had such little attention paid to it for all this time.

We have the Koelliken (Switzerland) Landfill removed about 25 Km east of where I live during the past 25 years. Action completed about 5 years ago. The landfill was covered by a pillar-less roof structure that was at that time I think the largest pillar less structure of the norhern hemisphere. The roof was there to collect emission gases and probably to hold rain water from washing out toxic content and leak it into the ground. I think quite a few such removal projects will follow throughout the country. In general, dumping is illegal here since many years and landfills are less and less active since strong smoke cleaning devices and toxic gas retention systems were developed and furnaces were equipped with these that generate heat and finally electricity from not only the gases coming out from the waste, but from burning the entire waste. In this way, waste is turned into fuel for bio mass power stations. In parallel, we do a lot to increase recycling rates. With metals, glass, paper, cardboard, batteries, textiles and PET recycling we are beyond 90% that flows back countrywide I think. Since recently, other plastic materials are recycled as a blend (different from the pure PET). Since that works, the waste my wife and I are producing is down to 1x 35L waste bag every 3 weeks to a Month.

I grew uo next to a landfill. It only became a problem when Toronto purchased it since Michigan said no more trash will be accepted by you Canadians. Then the dump ballooned! I've been on a never ending effort to teach people to reduce, compost (rot), refuse, repair, recycle and many sustainable living initiatives. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but people are slowly catching on.

My home town in Alabama refuses to recycle anymore. The locals mix trash and recycling when they are given a garbage bin and a recycling bin. They restarted and ended the recycling program maybe 5 times in the past 20 years. I believe recycling is not a strong solution but maybe composting is. Here in alabama, our plants overgrow the land quickly, brush piles and food scraps alike can be composted. In fact, there is one town close by, Vestavia, who pick up compost alongside trash. Locals can go to the compost facility to get bags of compost for free, or a truckload if you have a pickup truck.

I asked my mom when we were at the grocery store, I was 5 or 6 years old, "How come we don't bring our own containers to fill". A simple question from a simpler time, but very profound. The Product doesn't have to have Product Branding glued all over the packaging, that just gets thrown away anyway. The Real Problem is the Product Packaging. Western Civilization for the Whole World! It is Glorious!, Isn't it?!

Thanks, I worked in the recycling industry for 30 years, most wastes can be recycled to some extent, but finding a market for the recycled material and turning a profit are big problems. To make a profit you usually have to charge for accepting the waste, waste producers will pay the minimum possible and will often choose landfill for cost reasons rather than pay for recycling. To be fair, here in the UK some of the larger and better manufacturers have a no landfill policy, and will pay.

Great doco. With massive floods now being a daily occurrence somewhere on Earth, I worry about all the additional waste that's generated - when people toss out their water-damaged stuff, it's just the start of the journey

i am able to separate about 75% of my own organic waste and compost it in my back yard, mixing it with leftover charcoal from our campfires to use in my garden beds

The problem starts earlier. In large parts of the 3rd world they don't even have a working waste collection, not to mention landfills.