Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by jlmorton on Monday June 17, 2019 @07:27PM (#20208307)

Landfills are three dimensional and the Earth is astonishingly large. On millennia timescales, we will never run out of places to put them.

At a depth of 400 feet, the entire US annual trash output is approximately 1,000 acre [1].

There are 37 billion acres on earth. And indeed, much of that is not very habitable land.

And importantly, landfill space is not permanently lost. There are many beautiful parks around the world built atop landfills.

[1] https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-scienc...

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Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by codedokode on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @03:24AM (#20210420)

The waste in the landfill produces toxic gases. Also it can burn and produce even more toxic gases. Even if the landfill is several kilometers away from homes, it is still dangerous.

Also, the waste can pollute underground waters, and if there are many rivers in the region, the water will be contaminated in a large area around.

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Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by radford-neal on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @11:06AM (#20213888)

Yeah. Some toxic/flammable gasses can be produced from landfills. But that toxic gas is not produced by plastic. So reducing the amount of plastic in the landfill isn't going to reduce the amount of toxic stuff. Similarly, the plastic in a landfill is not going to end up in underground water, or in rivers. So what's your point?

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Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by Aenyn on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @08:49AM (#20212387)

So the problem isn't that it takes space then.

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