Visiting municipal waste recycling and landfill area

Along with a bunch of other employees, we signed up for this 1-hr. bus tour. The last time I visited such a facility was when I was 8 yrs. old and I distinctly remember the lagoons of smelly sewage water.

Yea, this time, we had to be schlepped by bus since the acreage of the place with different work activities was huge and for safety reasons.

One of the things we learned is that even biodegradable stuff takes a VERY long time to degrade, especially if it's sealed up tightly underground in landfill areas. Because of the lack of oxygen with tightly packed stuff, there's no oxygen to help facilitate the natural breakdown of materials. So a 1970's newspaper in an underground landfill area...is still in shape, readable.

But other stuff, like the raked leaves, tree cutting waste...mounds ... at a municipal facility was given to community gardens..and rest hauled away by a private firm..to make their own money to sell it off.

Very interesting! The town where I grew up used the leaves and branches that people put out for pick up or the trees the municipality had to cut down/trim to make a mulch/compost that anyone could come by and pick it up!

Landfills amaze me...