Quiz 5 - Additional Post - Landfills

There truly is no way to reach a "zero waste" society because it is not environmentally or economically feasible. That being said, landfills, which are our primary waste disposal methods, cause some serious problems for their surrounding environment. For one thing, the emissions to the atmosphere are problematic, because they release high amounts of dust, aerosols and potentially toxic gases. Also, because many landfills reside on top of some sort of water supply, it seeps down and creates potential issues with the water. A somewhat indirect consequence is that 80% of the total waste ends up being dumped into the oceans anyway, which is a pretty staggering statistic. The ocean is incredibly vast, sure, but dumping all that waste will have long-term effects that will manifest at some point during our existence. It's hard to imagine alternatives to landfills, though, because not everything can be recycled or composted. We can't make waste disappear, so technically there is not much we can do at this point to eliminate the problem. People that live near landfills may complain about the odor, but how could we make people care about this problem? The solution is out there somewhere, but it may be economically and technologically way down the road.