Landfills
Around 1920, land filling of wetlands began with the alternating layers of garbage and dirt. Land fills were to hold garbage and waste until it decomposed. Waste that would not decompose was buried out of sight in land fills. Incineration and land filling were the chosen waste disposal systems for a time. The increase concern over air pollution and the public dislike of the smoke and fumes emitted from incinerator plants soon caused the use of these facilities to decline. Land filling was proclaimed as the solution, safe and sanitary, to the problem of waste disposal.
Three hundred new landfills were built per year across the country during the 1970’s. With an increasing awareness of recycling, the creation of new landfills has diminished to somewhere between fifty to two hundred per year according to the National Solid Waste Management Association. But even if the current rate of garbage production remains the same, we will eventually run short of landfill space.
Not only are landfills reaching their capacity but poisonous substances are leaking into our water supply. Older land fills were constructed without linings. This has allowed chemicals from manufacturing plants and factories to seep into the underground water. Leachate, a liquid produced by rotting garbage has also seeped into the aquifers or ground water. These pollutants end up in wells and the water supply.
Between the years 1942-1953, thousands of tons of chemicals were dumped in Love Canal in the United States. In 1977, strange illnesses began to plague the residents who lived in houses which had been built on the land. An investigation showed that the chemicals had leaked into the ground water that was used by these families as drinking water. The result was that nearly one thousand families had to move away from their home.
We are also discovering that burying our trash does not get rid of it. May of the items we bury in our landfills are not biodegradable and the lack of air hinders the decomposition of waste. This means that some of these items, such as Styrofoam, will still be in a landfill some two hundred years from the day it was buried.
Objectives
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1. To allow first hand experience with the problem of an over abundance of trash.
Materials
You will need to set aside an area approximately 3’x 3’ as a landfill, (the size can be determined by the children but limits should be set) and non food trash.
Procedure
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1. Several days before you are ready to teach this lesson read the children the book “Trash” by Charlotte Wilcox. Allow them to predict what they think the book wiil be about.
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2. Tell the children that they will be garbage collectors. Explain that they are only to collect non food garbage.
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3. Give each child a large brown bag. Tell them that their source of garbage may be from home or a classroom in the school. They are to request that all non food garbage for the day is to be placed in the brown bag and returned to school.
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4. Show the children the class land fill. Explain that all trash must be placed in the landfill. The land fill size cannot be increased because of lack of classroom space. Emphasize that all trash must go in the land fill.
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5. Have children bring in their trash and place it in the land fill. Let them discuss possible solutions to the trash problem once they realize that all the trash will not fit.
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6. Suggest that they consider which items have been needlessly placed in the landfill. Record the children’s suggestions.