What is landfill for kids

Pine Tree Acres, Lenox, Michigan. Landfill operation in Hawaii. Note that the area being filled is a single, well-defined "cell" and that a protective landfill liner is in place exposed on the left to prevent contamination by leachates migrating downward through the underlying geological formation.

Landfill facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles including the article images and facts can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:. Hidden categories: All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from January Navigation menu Personal tools Log in. Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read View source View history. This page was last changed on 6 September , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use Privacy Policy.

Some content of the original page may have been edited to make it more suitable for younger readers, unless otherwise noted. It is estimated the US uses single use plastic bags per year, and there are as many as 1 trillion used annually across the globe.

By recycling and reusing our waste materials, we can eliminate much of the paper and plastic waste that goes into landfills. This is wise because it takes as long as 1, years for a single plastic bag to degrade.

This isolation is done by using a bottom liner and covering of soil each day. A sanitary landfill will use a liner made of clay to isolate garbage from the environment. A municipal solid waste landfill uses a plastic liner to isolate the trash from the surrounding environment. The purpose of the landfill is to bury garbage in a way that isolates it from groundwater.

The refuse is kept dry and does not make contact with the air. Under such conditions, the trash does not decompose quickly. A landfill is different from a compost pile, where the idea is to bury garbage in a way so that it decomposes rapidly.

For a landfill to be constructed in your city or town, operators must follow certain regulations. In the US, there are restrictions where a landfill can be situated and how it can operate. The process starts with a person or entity proposing the landfill to the local government. In the US, disposing of trash is a responsibility of the local government. Before the community can construct the landfill, it is necessary for an environmental impact study to be performed.

This study includes these parts:. After the study is completed, the entity must obtain permits and money needs to be raised from bonds to pay for an operate the landfill. Modern landfills are an essential part of responsibly disposing of refuse. But all of us can help to reduce the need for landfill space by recycling and reusing as much of our trash as we can every day.