We all know the landfill is considered to be one of the fascinating methods to manage waste since it is easy to operate, cheap, and involves minimal processing infrastructural setup. However, a significant question that arises nowadays is whether these landfills are beneficial for biodegradation, or are these just created to store waste?
Landfills are designed in a way, so that they supplement the process of biodegradation by living organisms, for instance, fungi or bacteria, either in the presence of oxygen (aerobic) or in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic). As these macromolecules are gradually broken down into fundamental molecules, they recycle back to the environment as the building blocks of life.
However, we need to understand that in the twenty-first century, the problem of the decrease in free disposal space per unit area is a significant concern. For a proper biodegradation process, we need a threshold value of oxygen, dirt (for the growth of the microbes) and nutrients. If we cramp in excessive amounts of biomass in a given space, the material shall never degrade since each of that biomass shall never attain the threshold value. It’s like a gathering of hundreds of people in a given room. Every individual feels hot and uncomfortable since our body cannot quickly adapt to the meagre threshold atmospheric conditions.
Most of the processed items often undergo multiple processing stages before being tagged as ‘consumable’. In this process, raw material gets modified so robustly that at times it becomes complicated for the microbes to recognize their fundamental units and complement in decomposition.
Petroleum is one of the excellent examples where we can see this phenomenon. Crude petroleum is very easy to degrade. However, when the crude oil is processed into products (like plastics), it becomes completely inert. Many manufactures are nowadays claiming to produce photodegradable plastic bags/coverings for their product, which break down when exposed to sunlight. But the problem is if I keep the plastic material in a landfill, and that too in an overcrowded fashion, the last couple of layers shall never degrade due to the lack of availability of the sunlight.
To overcome these problems, landfills are now designed with various engineering perceptions that allow an influx of oxygen and water from an external source. But integrating these associated pieces of machinery shall result make the process cost-inefficient.
Another method to address the problem is by sorting the waste at the source. Mixing vegetable peels and plastic scraps shall create multiple problems as both require different kinds of degradation stimulus and follow distinct degradation kinetics.
Overpopulation is the deadliest problem that triggers various associated challenges, and the degraded condition of landfills is one of them. While on the one hand, the focus on the “three Rs” (reduce, reuse, recycle) should be paramount, an equal thrust should be given to optimizing the processing which aids the catalysis of the ‘three Rs’. With the advent of various technical innovations, I admit that the generation of the waste can’t be eradicated, if not reduced. However, stress should be placed on how to bring the current landfill technology process more efficient and, at the same time, harmonize it to be cost-efficient.
Feature image refereed from T-VINE.