Jung Yeon Lee

Considering the fact that United States is the leading country to have the greatest waste generation globally, we also should consider where those wastes are currently disposed and how they are treated. According to the data which Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has researched, about 54% of municipal solid waste is ended up in landfills. Although United States is currently on the way to change its method of treating the waste such as recycling, composting, and combusting, the percentage is still insignificant.

Disposal to landfills is still manageable and helpful for the U.S. to deal with its massive amount of municipal solid waste. However, these wastes are creating more serious environmental and social problems.

Though improvements have been made for constructing sanitary landfills over past years, existing landfills still have are tremendous impacts on people and the environment. There is always a possibility that leachate from a landfill will contaminate underlying and adjacent waterways. The risk to humans and ecosystems from leachate is uncertain. The amount of leaching, the substances that have leached out, and how far they will travel are impossible to know beforehand. Also, as the solid waste decomposes inside the landfill, it releases greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.

Then, what should our society do to reach a cleaner environment? First of all, waste stream to landfills should be monitored and supervised under strict conditions of laws and permits. It is true that disposing into landfills might seem as the best way to treat the wastes since it is the easiest and fast process. However, drawbacks caused from landfills are greater than any other methods. So stricter and consistent monitoring is essential to keep track of how waste is disposed in landfill sites to achieve eco-friendly environment. Furthermore, government should encourage and advance other methods of disposal. From the figure above, it is evident that other methods are not really spotlighted as much as landfills are. As more policies and campaigns to emphasize on recycling, composting, and combusting are made, landfill usage will sharply decrease, thus resulting less leachate and contamination. It is now necessary to pay particular attention to U.S.’ disposal type to progress our society to a cleaner environment.

<Jung Yeon Lee, U of HS, 11th grade>