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Different Types of Landfills
One type of landfill, called a bioreactor
landfill, uses a speeded up microbiological process to transform
waste into decomposing organic matter. This type of landfill takes about
5 to 10 years to break down the material in the landfill, instead of
30 to 100 years in a traditional "dry" landfill. This speeding up of
the decomposing process helps decrease the long-term environmental impacts
of the landfill.
Other landfills use a gasification process to break down the waste.
The waste is broken down by heating it to high temperatures in the absence
of gases normally found in air, such as oxygen.
This process produces a mixture of combustible gases (mainly methane,
hydrogen and carbon
monoxide), liquids and solid residues. The gases are collected and
used in boilers or combustion
engines to generate electricity.
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