INC NEWS - Fwd: landfills and plastic bags...

[Anne Guyton]

Hi all,

Just a little general info on landfills and bio-degradable - from a paper I did the last time I was in school 12+ years ago.  I trust someone will correct me if the facts have changed since then.

The long and short of it is nothing decomposes once its compacted and buried in a landfill.  This is well known by the sanitation department and a fact archaeologists depend on.  Bio-degradable just means it will break down in sunlight.  In that sense plastic bags are bio-degradable because they breakdown into very, very small pieces in sunlight.  Methane gas is a by-product of the anaerobic (without oxygen) organisms that are actually able to live in landfills. 

The purpose of a modern landfill is to create a tomb where nothing escapes - keeping all the hazardous waste safely contained and out of our water supply.

Respectfully,  
Anne M. Guyton
re:
Hey Melissa, I have some info for you about landfills. I was listening to Diane Reams show yesterday and she had some enviro specialist on and they were talking about landfills. And they have been doing studies and the results were unbelievable. Even if you use bio-bags it takes 500 to 1000 years for plastic bio-bags to decompose and if you use regular plastic bags it can take 2000 or more years for them to decompose. I wish there was away to get this info to show our sanitation department this . I knew this i had seen this on Discovery channel . But they are or aren't the experts. The reason for this is the bags react to the decomposing material from other trash and pretty much naturalizes the decomposing of the plastic. And along with the methane gas that builds up it also slows the process. Just thought you could us this info. Thanks Rick 
      







       
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