How Does a Modern Landfill Work? – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.so how does a modern landfill work imagine a giant plastic bathtub in the ground trash is added to the open tub and covered each day with daily cover such as contaminated soil or groundup construction debris as time goes by more and more trash is piled on and more highly toxic methane gas builds up as the trash decomposes this is when you start to get that trash smell you know the one any water that's in the trash or any rain or snow that seeps through the cover starts to trickle down through the garbage when water and waste are mixed it creates a toxic poisonous soup called lee lee contains all the dangerous stuff that's in a lot of what people throw in the trash the tens of thousands of chemicals heavy metals and other toxic materials found in electronics batteries prescription drugs and plastics just to name a few now the leeate containing these poisons percolates through the trash and eventually pools at the bottom one set of pipes collects the liquid and takes it to the collection tank and another set of pipes collects and diverts the toxic gases however only some of the gas gets captured over the life of the landfill the rest escapes into the air rancid odor and airborne toxins that have been shown to travel over three miles from a waste site history has proven that many parts of a landfill system will eventually fail the collection pipes buried under the garbage will become clogged and eventually break liners will be punctured by sharp objects and the chemicals in Leeate will burn holes in the plastic even the EPA and Cassella's own experts admit all liners leak if a leak were to be detected it's too late you cannot repair a liner once it begins to leak small holes become big holes and eventually the barrier between the waste and groundwater completely fails how and where the leech will reach the groundwater is impossible to predict hundreds of homes using private wells surround the Southbridge landfill the next time you take a sip of cool water from the faucet bathe your kids in the tub or take that long run in what you hope is healthy fresh air think about it dirty diapers broken office furniture bathroom cleaners all sound harmless enough when you're chucking them into the trash but now you know