Landfill

A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, trash dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits; in archeology this is known as a midden.

For the practice of filling a body of water to create new land, see Land reclamation. For other uses, see Landfill (disambiguation).

Some landfill sites are used for waste management purposes, such as temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or for various stages of processing waste material, such as sorting, treatment, or recycling. Unless they are stabilized, landfills may undergo severe shaking or soil liquefaction of the ground during an earthquake. Once full, the area over a landfill site may be reclaimed for other uses.

: takes in household waste and nonhazardous material. Included in this type of landfill is a Bioreactor Landfill that specifically degrades organic material.

Municipal solid waste

: for commercial and industrial waste. Other related landfills include Construction and Demolition Debris Landfills and Coal Combustion Residual Landfills.

Industrial waste

^[21] or PCB waste:^[22] Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) landfills that are monitored in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA).

Hazardous waste

Microbial topics[edit]

The status of a landfill's microbial community may determine its digestive efficiency.^[23]

Bacteria that digest plastic have been found in landfills.^[24]

Restrictions[edit]

Countries including Germany, Austria, Sweden,^[27] Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have banned the disposal of untreated waste in landfills. In these countries, only certain hazardous wastes, fly ashes from incineration or the stabilized output of mechanical biological treatment plants may still be deposited.

. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2015.

"Modern landfills"

(PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 5, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2005.

"Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999, on the landfill of waste"

. Archived from the original on October 30, 2005. Retrieved August 29, 2005.

"The Landfill Operation Management Advisor Web Based Expert System"

H. Lanier Hickman Jr. and Richard W. Eldredge. . A Brief History of Solid Waste Management in the US During the Last 50 Years. Archived from the original on November 23, 2005. Retrieved August 29, 2005.

"Part 3: The Sanitary Landfill"

Daniel A. Vallero, Environmental Biotechnology: A Biosystems Approach. 2nd Edition. Academic Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Boston MA, Print Book 9780124077768; eBook ISBN 9780124078970. 2015.