Landfills: Threatening Both the Environment and Cities

  (Picture of Landfill in Beetham)

Glimpse of a Polluted Future

Where are the birds that used to dot the sky?

They're not here anymore, and I have to wonder why.

Where are the fish that used to swim in this stream?

I can't see them anymore. What does that mean?

Where are the frogs that used to croak around this lake?

I can't hear them anymore. There must be some mistake.

I wish there was a clock whose hands I could rewind.

We might have saved these creatures if we'd just had more time.

Time to make people see how we're damaging our Earth,

Time to realize what it all was truly worth.

But the animals are disappearing at an alarming rate.

If we don't finally band together, it may really be too late.

                      - Anonymous

Cities are a threat to the environment. According to Hall and Barrett they are major contributors to global environmental problems including pollution, resource depletion and land take (2012). In this post I will be focusing on landfills in the city and how this affects the environment. The landfill that is located in the Beetham (very close to Port of Spain) is not the only landfill in the world that is in or on the periphery of a city. This occurs worldwide and has most of the same consequences. The Beetham landfill is located in that specific area due to it being accessible by a very good road network, there is a large area of land to available for use and it is very convenient for waste from businesses and industries in the surrounding urban areas to be deposited. Urban areas generate a majority of a country’s pollution and this ends up in landfills where it results in unsustainability. In this case unsustainability implies that at some point in the future development will be compromised or threatened and environmental capacities will be reached (Hall and Barrett 2012).

Sites to locate landfills should undergo site suitability analysis to ensure that it is in the appropriate areas. In Trinidad there are three landfills and they are located in the Beetham, Guanapo and Claxton Bay but I will be focusing on the one in the Beetham, which is on the periphery of POS. This area is not suitable for a landfill since the land is reclaimed. Therefore pollutants from the landfill can penetrate the soil and enter the sea. In addition, clay soils are needed to restrict drainage to prevent water from the landfill from passing through the soil and entering the water table. So this landfill that services the city is in a wrong location and the waste coming from the city and being deposited there is affecting the environment. Also, local landfills are not sanitary because the area is lined to retain the lechate that is produced from decomposition of waste and this gets into water sources near these sites (Baboolal 2012).

Landfills cause two major groups of problems and they are: atmospheric and hydrological effects. But before I get to those; it is important to note that the Beetham landfill destroyed mangroves for it to be placed there so it directly contributes to environmental unsustainability. The atmospheric effects mostly come from methane, which is produced from rotting organic matter in landfills. Methane is capable of trapping 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide hence contributing to the greenhouse effect and also an urban heat island since in this case the landfills are near to the city. In addition chemicals such as bleach and ammonia affect the air quality in the vicinity of the landfill. The hydrological effects come from toxic chemicals that may accumulate over time, leach into soils and get to water tables to contaminate the water present. Also, these chemicals can harm any organism that it may come into contact with. Waste from the city (residential, commercial and industries) is greatly contributing to the destruction of our natural environment. Fires also occur at landfills due to the gases present and this is problematic.

So the landfill is in that location to “benefit” people but it is causing more problems for city dwellers than it is solving. Here the environment can be viewed as a threat to the city since, environmental problems generated near or in cities are felt most severely within cities (Hall and Barrett 2012). Pollution in the core or periphery cities greatly affects those in the city whether they use the city to live, work or recreate. This can be seen where both the atmospheric and hydrological effects result in social problems especially affecting one’s health. Poor air quality results in respiratory illnesses and lung diseases.  While hydrological pollution can result in communicable diseases such as: cholera, typhoid and viral infections. Also, land contamination of the land actually used for the landfill and areas around it (due to leaching) prevent urban development on it since it poses a threat to health.

This threat of landfills to the environment and cities does not necessarily have to occur. Take for instance the city of Curitiba in Brazil. This area has a population of about two million and there is no sprawl, heavy development, traffic or most importantly for this post pollution. The reason for this city’s success in achieving small levels of pollution is proper plans, which are being carried out in the way they are meant to be. Firstly, there are strict guidelines about recycling of cans, plastic, paper etc to ensure that there is no non-biodegradable waste in landfills to take up space and cause health and aesthetic problems. Recycling costs no more than landfills and the city is cleaner and jobs are provided. Then for waste that cannot be recycled there are specific, licensed landfills that are to be used. There have been great attempts to locate these landfills in appropriate areas and on the most suitable soils to reduce environmental and social problems associated with landfills. Some waste such as medical waste, will still cause problems if placed in the landfills available are incinerated to minimize the problems. All of these initiative taken by Curitiba to reduce pollution results in a city that is not messy, very livable and has a mostly happy and healthy population. 

The chief executive officer of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), Dr. Joth Singh says that there are plans to close down the Beetham and Guanapo landfills (Baboolal 2012). With the closing down of those two landfills there is plans to create a sanitary landfill in Claxton Bay to meet the needs of the country and ensure that all the problems associated with landfills are addressed. These plans are still ongoing.

References:

Baboolal, Yvonne. 2012. Beetham, Guanapo Dumps to Be Shut Down-EMA Boss. Guardian Newspapers.

Hall and Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography. 4th Edition. London and New York: Routledge Publishing.

Skye, Jared. 2013. Environmental Problems: Landfills. http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Environmental_Problems: Landfills

UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity. 2012. City of Curitiba Brazil. http://www.cbd.int/authorities/casestudy/curitiba.shtml#waste1