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Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing in response to the invitation to readers featured in the last issue of your magazine.
The most current environmental issue concerning my community is landfills and their adverse
effects.

One of the most common outcomes of daily human activity is the production of waste, from food
leftovers to residual and hazardous waste generated by unscrupulous industries. This wastage is
disposed of and treated in Modern Sanitary Landfills. Although such installations must meet strict
engineering standards and must be located in deserted areas, they can malfunction regularly and
are usually hidden in plain sight in populated areas. Additionally, illegal landfills highly outnumber
legal ones and the landfill industry is not properly regulated which leads to unattended
environmental problems.

Furthermore, there are no arguments over the assertion that there are many factors that
contribute to the adverse ecological effects of landfills. Methane, carbon dioxide and a mixture of
chemicals like bleach and ammonia can produce toxic gases and odor that significantly impact the
quality of the air. Landfill gases find their way into homes, schools, nurseries, hospitals and other
buildings through windows and doors causing acute respiratory problems in children and elderly
people. Moreover, a plethora of chemicals from human wastage causes groundwater and surface
water contamination. Additional landfill environmental problems include: delayed decomposition
of wastage, dangerous effects on the health of pets and wildlife in general, landfill fires and the
exacerbation of global warming due to greenhouse gases emitted by landfills.

The deleterious effects of landfills demand action by enterprises, governments and individuals.
Most of the waste in landfills can be easily recycled at the household level. Increasing recycling
and composting efforts require individual action as well as adequate and efficient policies by
governments and industries alike. What is more, as recycling technologies and programs grow, the
need for landfills should diminish. While it is not possible to eliminate the garbage coming out of a
household in its entirety, simple ways to protect the environment can be integrated into daily life
to lessen the personal impact: use compact fluorescent light bulbs, participate in recycling
programs, use household items as cleaning products, utilize greywater for flushing the toilet and
watering the garden, use electronics until they are completely dead and impossible to use, and
buy organic products when possible.
Thusly, I urge your readers to seriously consider joining me in recycling and reusing products and
materials before discarding them so easily on a daily basis. We must take the initiative now to
protect our only planet. No step is too small.

Thank you for time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Carlos A. Carranza Bolívar

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