Monthly Archives: October 2016

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Landfill Tour

People in waste management cringe when they hear landfills called dumps. Around eight million metric tons of plastic enters the ocean each year, and much of this leaked out of dumps in the developing world. Past blogs have talked of dumps and their inadequacies. This blog is about the modern landfill. I took a tour of my local landfill recently to found out why they are better.

Andrea Bolitho works with the Solid Waste Management Department in Brevard County, Florida. She loaded our group into the Recycle Van and headed to the top of the landfill. At 185′ above sea level, it is the highest point in the county. The landfill is huge, but only one small section, the working face, receives trash each day. We watched a convoy of garbage trucks climb the hill, empty their loads and head back down. A compactor, a huge, heavy contraption with spiked wheels, drove back and forth over the garbage.

This garbage, about 2000 tons per day, is covered each evening with a layer of dirt and mulch. The mulch originates as yard waste, which is collected separately then ground up. The dirt is purchased. Covering the garbage each evening is expensive but critical. This keeps garbage in.

Birds were everywhere. Gulls, crows, ibis, pigeons and occasionally a pair of eagles fly between garbage trucks searching for food. Andrea tells us the birds don’t show up on Sunday when the landfill is closed.

Modern landfills are closed, sealed systems. Air and water don’t penetrate, so decomposition occurs very slowly. You can dig down into time in a landfill and find fifteen-year-old newspapers that are still legible. Garbage breaks down anaerobically, producing methane. Methane explodes easily and is a potent greenhouse gas. In this modern landfill there are wells that remove methane and pipe it to a facility that converts methane to energy. Methane from this landfill powers 6,000 homes.

There are wells scattered around the landfill which constantly check for the presence of leachate in groundwater. Leachate is the nasty liquid that leaks out of landfills. The landfill has slurry wall surrounding it and a clay liner underneath that contains the leachate. There has never been a leachate leak from the landfill. Leachate seeps down to the bottom of the landfill where it is sucked out and piped to a large tank. Leachate from the tank is sent to a wastewater treatment plant, cleaned and ends up in reuse water for lawns.

Yard waste isn’t the only thing kept out of the landfill. Recyclables, including paper, glass, some plastics and metal, are picked up separately. These are brought to a facility where they are sorted, baled and sold. Tires are shredded for mulch or incinerated. They float to the surface when buried in landfills. Concrete is set aside, then crushed and used as road base material. Appliances are collected curbside and brought to the landfill. Coolants are removed from refrigerators to keep them from escaping into the atmosphere and poking holes in the ozone layer. Metal from appliances is recycled.

This landfill has been in operation since the 1960’s. It has space for around two more years of garbage. Construction of a new landfill adjacent to the current one is underway. Dirt has been excavated, plastic liners installed, plumbing for leachate is being put in. This new landfill will be even better than the current one, and much better than the open dumps of developing countries. Modern landfills hold plastic and other garbage in, they prevent groundwater pollution, air pollution and global warming through release of methane, and they’re safer. Modern landfills give us time, and we need time to learn how to use plastic wisely. Until we figure things out, you can help keep plastic out of the ocean by using the BlueTube at your beach. Grab a bag on your way to the beach, pick up trash, throw it away. Send that plastic trash to the landfill where it will stay. That’s much better than ending up than the ocean.

Click on an image below to see full size and page through the photos.
Truck empties load on working face.
Garbage is compacted.
Bag catcher stops debris from blowing out.
Leachate tank holds liquid that seeps out of landfill.

Wells constantly check groundwater for contamination. None found.
Pallets ground into mulch.
Mulch from yard waste and pallets plus dirt cover working face at the end of each day.
Tires kept out of landfill because they float to surface.

Metal from appliances recycled. Freon removed from refrigerators.
Concrete ground and used for road base.
New, better landfill under construction now.
New, better landfill under construction now.

Methane from landfill produces electricity.

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Fall Mullet Run

Anyone who complains that Florida has no seasons has never witnessed our fantastic fall mullet run. When the days get shorter, water gets cooler, or a storm brings a drop in barometric pressure, striped mullet (Mugil cephalus) get the urge to breed. Enormous schools of mullet leave their estuarine safe places, like the Indian River Lagoon, enter the ocean and head south. Tarpon, snook, red drum, sharks and other big, hungry fish follow. From the beach you can see hundreds of mullets go airborne in unison to avoid being eaten. The big fish launch themselves into the air in pursuit. This is the season to watch five foot tarpon fly through the air or catch one from the beach.

Colin Ekhoff works at Black Dog Bait and Tackle in Melbourne Beach. During mullet run season, if he’s not at Black Dog, he’s fishing off the beach. “I have great luck when the mullet come in.” Ekhoff claims, but did not verify, that he’s caught “tons and tons” of snook since the mullet started running in early September.

The mullet eventually veer offshore and out of sight to deep water. A giant spawn fest ensues as females release up to a million and a half eggs and males release clouds of sperm into the water. Mission accomplished, the adult mullet return to the estuaries they came from. The eggs hatch into larvae in a couple days. These transform into tiny fish and make their way back to the estuaries. They move into intertidal zones where salinity ranges from zero to super salty, temperatures soar, and oxygen is low. This is where predators don’t venture. Young mullet eat constantly. They eat anything they can fit in their mouths, including plastic. When they are larger and less likely to be eaten, they move to deeper waters of the estuary. In a few years, when they are sexually mature, they will be lured by the change of seasons, join hordes of other mullet, and migrate down the coast in the mullet run.

Our fall mullet run season is an exciting time to be at the beach, but it’s not a good time to swim. When fish fly and Pelicans dive, get your pole or camera, but don’t risk swimming through a feeding frenzy of big fish with sharp teeth. Instead, grab a bag from the BlueTube at the beach. Pick up trash. Throw it away. We can keep plastic off the beach and out of the ocean. We can help keep plastic out of the guts of mullet and out of the fish we bring home for dinner.

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Waste Pickers

Waste pickers in poorer countries do the recycling work that machines do here. Millions of people earn a living sorting through garbage, collecting items with value and selling them to buyers. It’s dangerous work. They wade through feces, toxic chemicals and medical waste at garbage dumps. They dodge junk slides, fires, rats and garbage trucks. Sometimes they ride on top of garbage trucks. They strain muscles and hurt backs with heavy lifting and repetitive movements. Why would anyone do it? It’s miserable work, but it requires no education or training, the hours are flexible and it provides crucial income where options are few.

We are producing more plastic trash that does not biodegrade than ever before, and it is overwhelming developing countries where waste management systems are flimsy or nonexistent. Recycling is part of the solution, and if it weren’t for waste pickers in these places, there would be no recycling. Waste pickers divert materials from overburdened dumps, they do it for free and they are good at it. At garbage dumps in the Philippines, waste pickers are almost 100% efficient at removing metal and 90% efficient at removing PET bottles.

Recycling nine out of ten plastic bottles sounds good, but it is far from adequate. The report, Stemming the Tide: Land-based strategies for a plastic-free ocean, points out that a waste picker who collects nothing but plastic, PET bottles, earns around $3.50 for a day’s work. A waste picker who only collects plastic bags would only earn $0.50. A mere twenty percent of plastic that waste pickers pick through is worth their time and effort to collect. The remaining eighty percent is not recycled, it does not biodegrade, and in countries without good waste collection and sanitary landfills, it is more likely to leak out into the ocean.

Our landfills are engineered to minimize pollution and maximize trash retention and safety. Dumps are not. The Philippines has 600 open dumps. Open dumps pollute ground water, soil and the atmosphere. There are methane explosions, frequent fires and trash leaks out of them. So much of the garbage brought to these dumps blows away or washes out to sea in heavy rains that the Philippines is the third biggest source of ocean plastic in the world. Open dumps need to be replaced with sanitary landfills. But at modern landfills there is no access to waste that waste pickers need to earn a living, and no place for shanty towns, like those that spring up around dumps, to house the waste pickers. Another option for handling waste is to build more waste-to-energy plants. These would get rid of trash and reduce plastic that leaks into the ocean. They would also cut off access to waste that waste pickers depend on.

Developing countries are dealing with waste and waste picker challenges differently. In Lagos, Nigeria, waste pickers have been told to register with the state and pay levies. Waste pickers make money from trash and the state wants some of it. In other places, most notably Brazil and India, government has helped waste pickers form cooperatives. Being part of a cooperative gives waste pickers access to storage space and equipment that makes sorting recyclables easier, safer and more profitable. Some cooperatives offer child care and health care which make life easier, and uniforms and badges which bring some dignity to the work. Waste pickers are at the bottom of society’s pecking order and are harassed and discriminated against. They get more respect in a uniform.

Big improvements are needed now before we consume and throw out more plastic. Hopefully waste pickers can be part of the solution. There are armies of waste pickers in the developing world who are not only willing to sort through mountains of garbage, they depend on it for a living. Perhaps they can collect recyclables door-to-door before garbage goes to sanitary landfills or waste-to-energy plants. They could possibly be hired to manually sort recyclables in safer material recovery facilities. Maybe plastic that retains more value will be produced so it is worth their effort to collect. Watch for future success stories concerning waste pickers, waste management solutions and cleaner oceans.