What is so bad about landfills?
Recycling helps us avoid disposal in landfills or incinerators. Incinerators have a very high cost, create a hazardous ash residue that requires special disposal treatment and, by burning the material, prevent its reuse at a later date. Landfills are becoming increasingly expensive to operate because they are becoming more tightly regulated. One of every five Super Fund Sites in the United States is a toxic landfill. Lead, mercury, leachate and gaseous emissions such as methane (a greenhouse gas that is far more potent per ton emitted than is carbon dioxide) all represent major risks in landfill disposal. Traditionally, neither the cost of clean-up of these Super Fund Sites nor the intangible cost of damage to our air, land and water resources are included in the cost factors of landfill or incineration disposal. Although the materials may remain buried in a landfill forever and could be “mined” at a later date, effectively they are removed from society and are no longer readily availa
