LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Landfills
built 645 days ago
Landfills are dumps used to dispose of household, commercial and industrial wastes and are privately or municipally owned. Dumps can contaminate groundwater and soil with hazardous chemicals such as heavy metals or solvents. These hazardous chemicals are found in household cleaning products, industrial waste, automobile parts and numerous other items classified as “solid waste”. Landfill liners slow down the process of leakage... eventually all landfills leak, according to the EPA. As rain and snow move through any contaminated waste and soil, some chemicals can dissolve and contaminate the water. This tainted water is known as leachate and can contain high concentrations of chemicals.
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Landfills +, Inc. is a small business incorporated in the State of Illinois. It was founded by Dr. Jean Bogner in 1997 and is based in Wheaton, a Chicago suburb. In 1998, J. Bogner left Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) to devote full time to private consulting through Landfills +, Inc. As a small business, Landfills +, Inc. is able to give personalized attention to client needs and respond quickly to client requests. Landfill gas has been J. Bogner's major area of emphasis and interest in a wide variety of projects over the last 20 years at Argonne and in previous consulting for private clients
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Landfills, both closed and active, can pose potential threats to surface—and groundwater quality and to human health. Potential groundwater contaminants from municipal waste landfills include, acetone, benzene, tricholoroethylene, lead, chlorides, and 1,4-dichlorobenzene. In 1993, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission identified at least 24 municipal landfills causing groundwater pollution. Landfills ... can be horrible neighbors if odors, debris, rats, and run off of contaminated water are not controlled. Several neighborhood groups around the state have filed suits against landfill companies for not meeting up to their operating plans, and preventing these problems.
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Landfills are probably the oldest method of disposal. When people were done with something they threw it on the ground. Eventually they threw debris into a central location. Until the population increased drastically and land prices rose to recent levels, landfills were convenient and cheap. Now inexpensive landfill space is disappearing. Of the nine present landfills (see map) that accept at least 100 tons per day, as many as four might close in the next six years.
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Landfills have been redeveloped over the years with varying degrees of success. (Around 70 golf courses in the U.S. used to be landfill sites, according to WasteAge). According to the Scotsman newspaper, a landfill site in Glasgow has drawn ire from locals over the years who suspect that it's toxic waste could be responsible for Down's syndrome births in the surrounding areas. The locals have more reason to be cheerful these days... since the local county council decided to transform it into the UK's largest urban forest.
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Right now, with free landfills handling all of the end-cycle costs for their products, corporations try to move as many of their costs as possible to the end-cycle. What this means is that the dirtiest companies win. If corporations had to pay for handling the trash that they create, then the end-cycle costs of products would be embedded into the product price. Suddenly, the cleanest companies would win in the marketplace because they would have the lowest prices.
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