Open Waste Area and Land Filling.

Until recent time, 90% of waste in US is used to bury. Open dumping takes

more space and more energy to handle it and usually becomes the shelter of

different type of leaving creatures; rats, mosquitoes, bags - the potential

carriers of diseases. The process of rotting of organic waste spreads strong

smell to surrounding area, and the wind disseminates the loose trashes. In

developed countries there are almost no open dumping areas nowadays (except

for solid waste), but in third world it is the only way of handling the

waste; cheaper and more convenient.

The heartbreaking fact is that those open waste areas, in third world, become shelter and the only source of income for many poor people.

Ecological impact of open dumping is wide and significant. The content of

waste can be various, starting from usual organic waste and ending with heavy

chemical products, which can be dissolved by rain or snow water. It leaks to

underground water and can spread many miles away from the original source. In

the past, people used open dumping because most of the waste used to be

absorbed by the nature; wind, water, ground and sun dissolve the waste. But

with the advance of the technology many items just simply don’t dissolve

easily. For example, paper takes two to ten years to completely disappear,

cans – more than 90 years, filter from cigars – more than 100 years, plastic

bags – 200 years, plastic – 500 years, glass – 1000 years.

With the danger of heavy pollution many countries changed open dumping to

land filling. Waste problem was solved for a decade, no more headaches for

government. But with more pollution of underground water and threat to

health, people realized the hidden danger. Nowadays, land filling is a very

sophisticated process; just simple burying turned into high technological

storage areas. In the US 20 years ago, simply bury of waste cost $2 per kg,

now cost round $100 per kg; burying one liter of organic dissolvent costs

more than its production and it has an increasing tendency. With production

of 160 million tons of waste every year, the US has not only the problem of

the expenditure, but also the rapid fill ups of land filling areas.

Waste-to-energy

High-density areas like Europe don’t have much land to landfill so they

preferred to burn the waste instead of burying. The first systematic chain furnace was tested in England in 1874. Burning decreases the size of waste about 70 - 90 percent and ashes easily turn into construction materials. This method was adapted on both sides of Atlantic Ocean; in Europe early, in America little bit later. In the developed world waste burning is used for production of electrical and steam energy, construction supplies and crude iron. For example, the leading US’s waste company the “Waste Management Co.” produces about 623 megawatts of energy every year, which is equivalent of supplying 550,000 homes with energy. According company’s report:” . “WM” has processed over 100 million tons of municipal solid waste into energy since 1975, saving more than 150 million barrels of oil while producing 50 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.”

Burning the waste for a production of energy also has its downside. Waste

itself is a very difficult burning material. It requires special expensive process to be burnt and not everywhere it repaid the expenditure. For example Moscow had a problem when they tried to establish the new plant. Mayor of Moscow agreed to put in budget to purchase of furnace from western countries but refused to buy the cleaning equipment, because the emission cleaning equipment cost almost the same price as the plant itself. Without the cleaning equipment amount of carbon dioxide it excretes into the air is enormous.

Moscow has an air pollution problem without the waste burning plant so the project was canceled. Most of the third world burning plants work because of subsidies of international organizations. But in many, many developing countries this technology just simply didn’t find the usage. It is much cheaper just burning the waste on open area than trying to turn into energy.