Landfill; the importance of recycling in education

By educating our children now and  introducing recycling in education, we can ensure that generations of the future protect our planet from environment dangers such as landfill.

Any waste that we don’t recycle has to go somewhere. The next time you throw something in the bin, think about where it will end up. If you can’t recycle it, then it will more than likely end up in landfill.

What is landfill?

Landfill sites are made from an area of land that that has a large enough hole in it, or can be made in it, like an old quarry. These landfill sites exist all over the UK and indeed, the world, and we put all of our rubbish that we don’t recycle into it. It is full of household rubbish and commercial waste

In the UK alone, our combined households produce 31 million tonnes of rubbish per year – and it has to go somewhere. Just imagine you have 3.5 million London buses in a line – nose to tail – that’s enough to go around the world 2.5 times; and that’s the weight of rubbish we produce.

A few years back, before we started getting better at recycling the small stuff, even our organic waste, like food, paper, cardboard, wood, plastic and tins went into landfill. Today, it is largely made up of waste from construction and commercial businesses, such as soil, concrete and brick rubble. This is known as ‘inert’ waste because it is unlikely to chemically react with other rubbish, making it relatively safe for landfill.

All landfill sites are designed, operated and heavily monitored to ensure compliance with regulations and are checked for contaminants, which may be present. Stringent monitoring ensures the landfill is free from groundwater contamination and landfill gas.

How are landfills bad for the environment?

• They are a major cause of pollution
• Rubbish buried in landfill breaks down incredibly slowly creating toxins, leachate and greenhouse gases
• Other negative factors include nauseous odours, unsightly views, and vermin infestations
• They are also a big cost to taxpayers
• High levels of methane gas and CO2 are generated speeding up global warming
• Fire hazards due to gases such as Methane

How can we send less to landfills?

We need to recycle as much as possible, now and in the future, and that is why we need to teach our children about landfill; the importance of recycling in education will be priceless for our future generations. The 3 R’s play an important role in this; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This means reducing what you ‘use’ where possible, reuse as much as you can, and take what’s left to the recycling centre. We all need to make better environmental choices.