How come landfills are not the safe way of waste disposal?
The current method of disposing waste in landfills in many countries is not environmentally friendly as it is mostly done in an uncontrolled manner. However it is still the most common method. In many instances landfill sites are not chosen properly in terms of geophysical, topography, hydrology, soil properties and climate. Even when a site has been selected after proper considerations, there is no guarantee that surface run-off or leaching of harmful chemicals and materials wouldn’t occur. To reduce this threat, landfill sites have been lined with plastic materials and other materials to prevent leaching into the groundwater. Another risk posed by the landfill sites is the release of harmful gases like methane. Apart from such problems they are also major breeding grounds of all kinds of disease-causing organisms such as mosquitoes and flies.
