Why is landfill a problem?
Landfill harms the environment not only by polluting soil and land, but also because biodegradable waste – such as food leftovers, garden clippings and paper – does not compost properly when dumped in a tip due to a lack of oxygen. Instead, it breaks down to produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Methane from landfill accounts for 3% of the UK’s climate change emissions. Some of the rubbish that ends up in landfill will take decades, and maybe hundreds of years, to break down. Standard plastic bags, for example, can take 100 years to disappear. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme, recycling currently saves between 10-15m tonnes of greenhouses gases a year. This is equivalent to about 10% of the emissions produced by UK households and has the same effect as taking 3.5m cars off the road. According to one piece of research, in a single year, the contents of the average dustbin contain enough unreleased energy to heat 3,500 showers
