Why are landfills so harmful to the environment? Landfill emissions pose a threat to the health of those who live and work near landfills. A study conducted in New York found that there is a 12% increase in the risk of congenital malformations in children born to families that live less than a mile from a hazardous waste landfill. Landfills face the enormous challenge of managing hazardous waste, a complex task and high-risk. The mismanagement of these materials can contaminate soil and water, posing significant health risks to communities near these waste disposal sites.
The large amount of waste mixed with the gases produced by landfills can easily cause fires to start. In addition to causing air pollution, if fires are not put out immediately, they can get out of control and destroy neighboring habitats. While modern landfills are designed to keep toxic waste contained, leaks do occur. Therefore, landfills remain hazardous to the environment and human health.
The methane that is released due to the decomposition of waste is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. Air pollutants that escape the landfill can also cause respiratory problems in people who live near the landfill. And if leachate seeps from landfills, it can carry toxins from the landfill into supplies of nearby groundwater. Studies have shown that landfills are most often built near low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
Because of this injustice, these people are more likely to suffer the health risks associated with landfills. A notable example is the Cleveland materials recovery facility in Ohio, which is capable of processing 144,000 tons of debris per year. It uses advanced technologies to sort metals, plastics, paper and other materials to send them to recycling markets, significantly reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill. Leachate is a toxic liquid that forms when waste decomposes.
It can seep into the ground and contaminate soil and groundwater, including drinking water sources. A notorious example is Love Canal. Love proposed a channel to connect parts of the Niagara River in New York State. It never ended, it left a deep ditch.
The problems began in the 1920s, when the ditch became the city's garbage dump. Then, in the 1940s, a chemical company bought the ditch and used it to dump about 20,000 tons of debris from the manufacture of dyes, perfumes and solvents. Long-standing health problems of nearby residents include: high white blood cell counts and leukemia.
