Reusable Bags Help our Landfills
What happens to paper and plastic bags in a landfill?
In the short term, nothing. Trash in a sanitary landfill is so isolated from air, water and soil that nothing in it can biodegrade very quickly. It can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade in a landfill, and even paper and food scraps can remain intact for decades. In a 1973 experiment known as “The Garbage Project” led by Tuscon archaeologist Dr. William Rathje, excavations of a landfill revealed legible 50-year-old newspapers and 25-year-old heads of lettuce still intact. Having a lot of trash that doesn’t biodegrade is a problem because we have a limited amount of landfill space. By consuming fewer disposable items and increasing our use of reusable products such as reusable shopping bags, we can help keep this problem from getting worse.
Another reason to avoid adding to landfills is that they emit methane gas, a contributor to global warming, and can leach toxic runoff into groundwater in spite of efforts to keep their contents separate. According to Greenpeace, runoff from coastal landfills is one source of estuary contamination and marine debris, which pollutes water and endangers wildlife. According to the US Energy Information Administration, plastics occupy 25% of landfill space in the US, while paper takes 30-35%. For the environment and for our health, it is best to reduce waste by using reusable containers and grocery bags. Some cities, such as Warwick, UK; Naples, Italy and San Francisco, CA are already confronting or anticipating maximum capacity in their landfills.
Landfills anywhere are costly to build and maintain, and must be monitored for decades after they close. Alternative waste disposal practices such as incineration and ocean disposal also have negative environmental consequences, namely air and water pollution and harm to wildlife. We can mitigate all of these costs of waste disposal simply by generating less of it. Remember to use reusable grocery bags!