I have been scavenging at and then reading about landfills since I was a kid, and from the beginning decided they were such a waste of resources.
I remember seeing H.J. Heinz products dumped by the truckload because the weight was off, clothing from stores, new & boxed appliances, other boxed items, slightly used cast-offs, and metal scrap that could be recycled dumped in the local landfill.
Of course this was before garbage was an owned commodity by the major landfill operators such as Waste Management, Republic, etc.
A few of the old retired mill workers, including my grandfather who was typical of the great tinkers and by the seat of his pants innovators of the last century, had a sort of good old boy club at the land fill, picking to pass away the time. The pace was a lot slower and the loads did not have to be covered quickly as today.
Ah, the joys of an apprentice tinker like myself, as known and mysterious stuff was salvaged and brought back to the farm for investigation, experimentation, and use.
I received a new in the box Sony tube clock radio (complete with all paperwork) that I kept for about 20 years. Fine craftsmanship, wood cabinetry instead of plastic, rich sound, and so big and sturdy, especially by the standards of today. Definitely a keeper and not an item built with planned obsolescence.
And then after that joyous era was stemmed by Big Business buying up all of the Mom and Pop Operators, the regulatory agencies stepped in, the law making began, and planned obsolescence began, I started to read about Landfill Gases and the efforts around the world to extract and use it.
I have long been leery of plastic, and especially in landfills and Steel Mill Sludge Containment Ponds and figured this was a great opportunity. I visited a couple of the extraction plants at local landfills and though they were operational, the design was cheap, cheap, cheap, but it was a start.
So, this oration brings me to an article I read this morning, and wasn't aware of:
The first sign of trouble came in August when wells drilled into the millions of tons of rotting garbage buried at the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill coughed up heat and carbon monoxide instead of natural gas.
No one knows what caused the 10-acre underground fire that is still burning in the landfill north of Cincinnati in Hamilton County.
Three fires are burning in northeastern Ohio landfills, including one at the Countywide Disposal and Recycling Facility in Stark County. That one started in 2006.
Aside from being notoriously difficult to extinguish, these fires can produce air pollution, explosions and landslides. They also can melt the buried pipes and plastic liners meant to shield groundwater from pollution.
More potential for problems, energy being wasted, and resources not recovered, any ideas on what we should do, how to present it, and open up an industry that could employ thousands. I am sure we would have no trouble finding immigrants who would do these jobs, if natives wouldn't, after all a slaughterhouse or chicken processing plant has to be worse.
Look to the scavengers all over the world that pick to survive.
Underground Fires At Landfills Worry State EPA
Re: Underground Fires At Landfills Worry State EPA
"Almost" Good Answers: