Landfills: There’s More Than Meets The Eye.
And Nose.
Advanced Disposal is deeply committed to ensuring a clean and
safe environment for our employees, our customers, and our
communities. We consider environmental stewardship of utmost
importance and believe that our true business is making the world a
cleaner, more beautiful place to live, work and play.
Advanced Disposal’s landfills are impressive engineering structures
that offer protection to the natural environment while providing a
vital service to governments, businesses and residents. They are
managed and operated meticulously, providing a safe and costeffective
disposal option for community waste.
What is a Landfill?
A landfill is a carefully designed structure built into or on top of the
ground, in which trash is insulated from the area around it. There
are different types of landfills including Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW), Construction and Demolition (C&D) and Inert. Landfills are
designed, built and regulated based on what materials are buried
within the landfill.
Why Are Landfills Important?
Landfills provide a vital service to accept and store solid waste and
prevent contamination between the waste and the surrounding
environment, especially groundwater.
Landfills are assets that every community needs. While all landfills in
the U.S. follow the same federal regulations when being built, it is the
operation and maintenance of the landfills that sets companies apart.
What Happens to the Trash in a Landfill?
Landfills are not designed to break down trash, merely to bury
it. That’s because they contain minimal amounts of oxygen and
moisture, which prevents trash from breaking down rapidly. So
landfills are carefully filled, monitored and maintained while they
are active and for up to 30 years after they are closed.
What is the Difference Between a Dump and
a Landfill?
A dump is an open hole in the ground where trash is buried and
where animals often swarm. Dumps offer no environmental
protection and are not regulated.
A landfill is a carefully designed and monitored structure that
isolates trash from the surrounding environment (e.g. groundwater,
air, rain). This isolation is accomplished with the use of a bottom
liner and daily covering of soil. Landfills are highly regulated by all
levels of government - local, state and federal.
How do landfills conserve energy?
Converting landfill gas to energy is how mature landfills deal with
the issue of gases created within their facilities. It is an effective
means of recycling and reusing a valuable resource. In fact, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has endorsed landfill gas as
an environmentally friendly energy resource that reduces our reliance
on fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. Advanced Disposal is an active
participant in landfill gas to energy projects at our MSW landfills and
continues to look for smart solutions for solving community needs.
To learn more about how modern landfills are constructed and
operated, visit our website at: www.AdvancedDisposal.com/disposal