Five Reasons Why We Should Minimise The Amount Of Waste Going To Landfill
The waste that we don’t recycle gets sent to landfill sites where it is deposited underground. The use of landfill waste has always been damaging to the environment but thankfully there are much more stringent regulations in place nowadays, which minimises the amount of waste being sent there. Places such as Worcestershire have made great strides in limiting the amount of waste going to landfill in recent years.
Unfortunately, there is still a significant proportion of our waste going to landfill, which is why we should try and minimise this as much as possible. Here are five reasons why we should try and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill:
Toxins
The waste produced by our society contains an almost unimaginable number of different materials and substances – some of them highly toxic. If the more poisonous ones are left to rot in a landfill site, then they can over time they can leach into the soil and groundwater which can cause terrible environmental problems for decades after. Modern products such as computers and televisions contain loads of harmful substances such as arsenic, mercury, acids, lead, solvents and more.
Leachate
When waste breaks down in landfill and water filters through it, a liquid called leachate is formed. As you can imagine, this liquid can be very poisonous and can pollute groundwater, rivers and the surrounding land.
Greenhouse Gas
Greenhouse gas is a gas that can contribute to climate change and the warming of our planet by absorbing infrared radiation from space. When organic waste is put into landfill, its compaction removes the oxygen and makes it break down in an anaerobic process. This is eventually released as methane which is far more damaging to our atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Cost
It might seem cheaper to simply dump everything that we don’t need, rather than go through the process of sorting, transporting and dividing up often complicated products into their constituent part – and on an individual level, this may be true. Taken from society’s perspective however, it is more costly to mine, refine and manufacture a completely new product compared to recycling where the components already exist and just need to be saved from landfill!
Space
The people of Britain live on a small island but have a population of over 66 million people, taking this into consideration we need to conserve as much space as possible! In a modern consumer society, the waste that we produce every day is vast which means that everything not recycled has to be buried (if not sent abroad). This can take up huge amounts of space that we could use for housing, recreation, agriculture and much more.
Go Greener
Go Greener is proud to have a varied range of different clients which we have built up over 25 years of operation. Our staff are highly motivated and are experienced waste management experts who consider it their mission to providing green alternatives to peoples’ and businesses’ waste requirements. Go Greener recycles between 90% to 95% of the waste that we collect, and we consider ourselves the premier recycling and skip hire company of the region. If you are someone who cares about our planet and feels strongly about making sure that our footprint on the world is as small as possible, Go Greener is the company for you. For more information about our skip hire, waste collection and aggregate recycling services, get in touch with us at Go Greener today.
