landfill

Ever since their invention, stuffed animals have been the best friends of children and adults all over the world. They offer comfort when the nights get dark and scary, help create imaginary worlds and take a big place in the heart of their owners. Sadly, many of them lay forgotten in dusty attics or worse, end up in a landfill. Charlotte Liebling noticed that many of these beautiful toys could bring joy to new owners with a little love and TLC and founded Loved Before Toy Adoption Agency, saving thousands of unwanted…

It’s mind-boggling to think that some human beings (considering today’s topic, hard to use that particular phrasing) can’t even do the bare minimum.Bare minimum, of course, refers to taking out the trash to its appropriate place, either inside the building, or right beside it. Nope, that’s not the case with some folks. Apparently, it’s easier for them to just chuck it over the fence into someone else’s backyard. Why… just why…? Taking out the trash is comparatively easy as chores go, but some folks still manage to…

Vapor hisses from surface fissures. Bubbling ponds of effluent form “rivers of odorous waste.” And at times, steaming hot liquid bursts into the air like a geyser. As operators struggle to contain a smoldering fire and pressure buildup deep within Chiquita Canyon Landfill, air quality regulators are raising alarms over the potential health risks posed by the toxic fumes escaping the Castaic facility. Environmental regulators say that the local air and water samples have contained elevated levels of benzene, a…

The final mission of the European Space Agency’s Vega rocket has encountered a bizarre setback. Key propellant tanks required for its last flight were found damaged in a landfill, jeopardizing the scheduled 2024 launch.“Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | AI UnlockedIt’s common for wallets to go missing. Same for car keys and mobile phones. It happens. But for two propellant tanks belonging to a 98-foot-tall rocket to go missing? That’s super strange.The two tanks belong to a set of four, and they’re needed to…

Americans tossed 292.4 million tons of trash into landfills in 2018, or about 5 pounds of garbage per person per day. Once in a landfill, much of that trash undergoes some wild chemistry, often polluting the surrounding area. But amid all the stinking refuse is potentially valuable material, and some environmentalists and engineers see landfills as a resource to be tapped. This Summer’s Hottest UmbrellaLandfill mining is the process of uncapping a landfill and sifting through its cells of garbage to reclaim any sort of…

In an attempt to solve two environmental problems at once, researchers at the University of Kitakyushu in Japan have found that shredded nappies can be used to replace between 9 and 40% of the sand used in making concrete without reducing its strength. Disposable nappies are a growing source of non-recyclable waste, and cement production is responsible for almost 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and consumes around 50 billion tonnes of sand each year. The nappy-infused concrete was used to build a small house in…

We rarely think about what happens to our garbage after it goes into the nearest waste receptacle. Whether it’s a piece of paper, a worn-out pair of flip flops, or leftovers from the back of your refrigerator, trash usually ends up at the same final destination: a landfill. Landfills are home to wild chemistry that can lead to different types of pollution. They’re also sites for clever engineering that seeks to mitigate that pollution.He Tossed His Bitcoin, Now He Wants It BackWhile the essence of a landfill is a pit full…

The brick-built cistern (context 1154) during excavation in 2021 (photographs and illustration by Sovrintendenza Capitolina—The Caesar's Forum Project). Credit: Antiquity (2023). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2023.34 A team of archaeologists affiliated with several institutions in Denmark and Italy has found buried medical waste in a Renaissance-era landfill that was once the site of Caesar's Forum in Rome. In their paper published in the…

When a wind turbine reaches the end of its working life, components like towers and nacelles can be recycled but blades often end up in landfill. Vestas is looking to commercialize a new chemical process that can break down all epoxy-based turbine blades for reuse.Harvesting wind is already roving to be an important part of the renewable energy mix, with more projects coming online and larger turbines being produced. Unfortunately, when turbine blades come to the end of their operational lives, they end up as waste in…

An underground landfill fire has been smoldering since November, creating toxic smoke that has affected nearby residents in a rural Alabama county. Officials have called in the help of the Environmental Protection Agency to find a way to extinguish the fire. The fire at the Environmental Landfill, Inc.,dumping ground has been mostly underground in the unincorporated county of St. Clair. It’s about 15 miles northeast of Birmingham, between the suburbs of Moody and Trussville. Residents in those areas have said that the…