How Can a Landfill Be Sustainable?

When you hear the word landfill, the last thing you probably associate with it is the word sustainable. These two may appear to have nothing in common, but it’s very important that a landfill be as sustainable as possible. 

Landfills are designed to break down as much as possible, but there are many waste products that cannot break down further. 

Sustainable Landfill Practices

There are several ways a landfill can improve its methods to be as sustainable as possible. These include some of the following: 

Taking Pre-treated Waste Only

By using pre-treated waste in the landfill, you reduce the number of potential toxins making their way into the environment. This method makes it easier

to take care of even potentially deadly toxins that lurk in some waste products.

Waste may be pre-treated with several processes, including biological or thermal. This ensures that waste products are safe for environmental

integration. While nearly everything breaks down over time, you want to do everything possible to prevent environmental breakdown. 

Using a Containment Landfill

These landfills include a liner to prevent the escape of toxins into the soil surrounding the landfill. Various types of containment are used, including liners made of plastic or concrete. However, it’s not reasonable to expect the landfill to last forever without any leaks. That means you need to plan for this eventual issue and select the correct site and correctly design the landfill. It also needs to be carefully managed to ensure the materials break down well and don’t cause further contamination should the liner fail. 

Reuse Methane Gas

The average landfill produces huge amounts of methane gas and this can be used as renewable energy. As long as the landfill is properly laid out and managed, you can ensure that there is plenty of clean energy to burn for the area surrounding the landfill. 

Resurfacing the Landfill

Once a landfill is full, you don’t need to leave it as is to mark up the surface of the landscape. Many landfills are covered over with soil to turn them into parks or athletic fields. You may find golf courses atop landfills and they can also be planted well so they become wildlife nature preserves, which gives back to the environment. 

When landfills are well designed to be sustainable, they will help the environment, rather than ruin it. We should all take care to reduce how much waste

we produce, as much of it ends up in the landfill. However, it’s a good idea to make sure you have everything necessary to make the landfill a good thing,

as well. 

Inevitably, some waste has to end up in landfills. Nevertheless, at William Thompson & Son, we work hard to ensure our landfill offers a sustainable

waste disposal location for those in Dumbarton and surrounding areas. We aim to be as responsible and sustainable as possible, efficiently separating

out any materials at our recycling centre that we can reuse. Contact us today to find out more about our landfill site and sustainability policy.