Good day Steemians.

In the first part which can be seen here we discussed about the waste disposal, the stages, and the methods of waste disposal.
Remember we discussed open dumps and open burning as some of the common methods of waste disposal in developing countries.
This is the second part where the methods of waste disposal is further discussed.

Landfill

Source
Landfill as a method of waste disposal is very popular in most countries. This method of waste disposal is by burying the waste in the ground. In this method, a big pit is dug, then the wastes, rubbish are dumped into it. Landfill sites follow some daily routine which are

• Weighing and inspecting the wastes brought to the landfill sites before the wastes are unloaded. This is to ensure compliance with the landfill site waste rules
• After unloading in the landfill, bulldozers or other earth moving equipment is used to compress/compact the waste to form what is called CELL
• At the end of each day, the waste is covered with layers of soil or other fine particles

This same routine continues everyday till the landfill is full. When the landfill is full, plenty layers of clay soil, mud is used to cover it and then compressed by an earth moving vehicle. It can now be used as a playground or parking space for cars.
Most landfill sites can be seen in urban areas, because they generate more wastes than rural areas, they also need to dispose their waste in a common place, not just in litters.

Choosing Landfill as a waste disposal method as some advantages such as

• Prevention of rats, flies and other vectors.
• Relatively low cost of disposing waste compared to other methods.
• Little manpower

Disadvantages

• Pollution problems
• Leaching problems which causes contamination of groundwater
• Landfill gases such as Methane which is highly flammable.

Most countries are rethinking the use of landfill due to the unavailability of space in urban areas and Leaching problems. To solve the leaching problem a similar but slightly different method was developed. It is known as Sanitary Landfill

---

Sanitary/Engineered Landfills

Source

Due to the issue of leaching encountered in Landfill method, this is considered a substitute to landfill, and it looks to solve the problem associated with leaching. In Landfill a pit is dug, and the wastes are just dumped there.
This is however different in sanitary landfill, In sanitary landfill after the pit is dug the pit walls are covered/lined with impermeable materials. The impermeable materials such as leathers, nylons, clay, and plastics prevent leaching problems, it prevent the leachate from getting to the groundwater and soils.

Source
Sanitary landfills are expensive to construct and they also have disadvantages.
Advantages

• It is more hygienic than regular landfill
• Problems of Leaching is greatly minimized
• Landfill gas such as Methane can be collected and utilized

Disadvantages

• Decomposition rate is low due to little oxygen
• Some biodegradable materials don’t decompose due to little oxygen
• Presence of methane due to little oxygen.
• High cost of implementation

Reaction with different chemicals in the waste makes the liners of the sanitary landfill to crack, thus leachate seepages occurs. This shows that Landfill may be the most common waste disposal method in urban areas, but it is not the best method.

---

Additional idea gotten from Wikipedia

---

The remaining Waste Disposal methods will continue in the next part

---

Kindly follow, Upvote, Comment, and Resteem if you like this post