Landfills have always been necessary to sustain an industrialized population. A landfill is where waste can be stored away from people. But, with more and more landfills being built, people need to understand why landfills are essential and how they can harm the environment. A landfill's job is to keep trash away from society and it has done that. 

 In the 1930s before landfills, Americans dug holes to deposit waste. This didn’t work because it was still near people and was unsanitary (Historicfresno.org, 2010). The Fresno Sanitary Landfill was the first industrial landfill.  It was created in 1937  and revolutionized the trench system and compaction which are extremely important in managing industrial-sized landfills. Then, in 1965, the government passed the Solid Waste Disposal Act. This created more landfills in the US (Lanier, 2016). 

Landfills still have greatly helped the removal of waste. The reason for this is that it uses technological innovations that put away mass amounts of waste. First, trucks dump trash into a specific area. Machines crush waste and bring it to an open area in the landfill. Many of these layers are packed together. Dirt is then placed on top to prevent the bad smell from leaving. Crushing it is important because it saves space (Scdhec.gov, 2019). Also, these landfills are built with clay linings so no chemicals can escape underground.

Even though landfills have been proven to be quite efficient, they still have some flaws. First, landfills have negative impacts on the environment. For instance, landfills can release greenhouse gases that can be deadly by causing climate change and smog. Another harmful part is the fact that landfills will always leak toxic elements into the soil and water no matter the number of linings. Also, gases and wastes inside the landfills can easily cause fires on sunny days leading to powerful fires (“Landfills: A Serious Problem for the Environment”). Finally, landfills are around 600 acres and there are about 3,000 of them in the world. In total, this means that 1.8 million acres of habitats for animals have been lost (“The Hidden Damage of Landfills”).  

Even though major population areas are not near landfills, some people still live nearby and there have been reported health concerns. For example, a study found that 12 percent of kids born less than a mile near the landfill had congenital malfunctions. This would mostly impact low-income families as they most likely live near these areas and have little say in the construction (“The Hidden Damage of Landfills”). Let’s face it, no one wants to live near a stinking pile of trash.

Finally, while people may think that this is only affecting people, it is also involving animals. Landfills are taking away land from animals and having enough food in it for animals. Also, landfills are providing migrating species with enough food so they no longer migrate, which impacts food webs. 

The pace to change how waste is kept has been accelerated. Many companies are offering alternatives to storing waste or getting rid of it. One solution that is overlooked is recycling many items in landfills. Almost 80% of the garbage in landfills could be recycled (“50 Recycling and Landfill Facts That Will Make You Think Twice About Your Trash”). We can eliminate some waste in landfills through this process and it could also have a financial return. 

One of the most widely used ways is burning waste called the mass-burn system. The waste can even be used to provide energy. Basically, waste is put in a chamber and burned to produce steam. This steam can power a turbine generator (“Waste-To-Energy (MSW) in Depth - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)”). A system like this has many benefits as it takes away waste and generates electricity.

Landfills have had a certain impact on managing waste. This ranges from protecting society’s public health to keeping our streets clean. Now, it is time for a change. As we have found out there are many unwanted side effects to landfills.  Using new innovations, we can eliminate landfills to create better ways to manage waste.