Sustainability Assignment

Sustainability Assignment
1. What are the issues surrounding the idea that landfills are closing? Please discuss issues in terms of perceptions, reality, circumstances, and functionality.

There are several issues surrounding the idea of landfills closing. There exists the idea that landfills have been closing at a rate that would not allow for the proper disposal of trash. However, the case of landfills closing is much more complicated than an initial glance at the data may seem. First, it was not dumps that were closing, but rather it was open aired dumbs that were. Approximately 50 years ago, Federal law, directed states and municipalities to begin closing open air dumps and replacing them with sanitary landfills. Open air dumbs were
The landfills that were left open were more modern, having a larger capacity and newer technology to handle environmental concerns. The new landfills are built to federal and state guidelines that have a minimal effect on the environment. Landfills must use liners to protect ground water and utilize other collection methods to contain contaminates before they reach the environment. Any landfill that could not conform to the new federal regulations were closed down.

2. Compare and contrast landfills, open dumps, and industrial compost facilities.

Open dumps, landfills, and industrial composting are three methods in which solid waste is disposed of. These three methods have overlapping history and methods, while also being distinctive entities. Open dumps are the predecessor to the modern landfill. Open dumps in the United States have been on the decline in the last 50 years. Open dumps were historically locations where solid waste was deposited without regard to the impact on the environment. These locations made no distinction between hazard waste and organic manner. Most open dumps have been closed or converted to landfills. Open dumping is illegal in all of the United States,
The procurement of trees can occur either when rights are sold to cut down trees on land that is set to be urbanized or when commercial tree farms are sowed, grown, cut, resowed on the same land. Both means take energy, but the former takes a more natural, less energy intensive path, while the latter takes more energy input from the use of fossil fuels to power the machines to plant, sow and maintain the tree farms. Once the trees are felled, requiring energy input, it is converted to pulp. The transformation of tree chips into pulp and then paper is an energy intensive endeavor, taking fossil fuel inputs to form and shape the paper into a specific product. Some paper products take more processing in order to obtain the final product. Paper that needs to be white, undergoes a bleaching process, taking an input of chemicals and more fossil fuels, which may lead to the contamination of water resources. Once the final paper product is produced, it needs to be moved to market, which again is fossil fuel intensive. The use of diesel, oil and gasoline is not only used to transport the paper product but also used by the consumer of to move the paper product to its final destination. Lastly, once the paper product is no longer needed it is either put into in a landfill or it begins a recycling phase, which uses fossil fuels to move the waste paper and then transform it back into a pulp.