(Image: © Antonio Oquias | Dreamstime)

Grease-soaked napkins, cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out
recycling centers, incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound
for a landfill, according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out recycling centers,
incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound for a landfill,
according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

Dsff9f99f9dff

cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out recycling centers,
incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound for a landfill,
according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

Dsff9f99f9dff

cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out recycling centers,
incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound for a landfill,
according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

Dsff9f99f9dff

cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out recycling centers,
incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound for a landfill,
according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

S

Dsff9f99f9dff

cat food cans and banana peels can go many places after you throw them out recycling centers,
incinerators or even a compost pile . But more than half of America's garbage is bound for a landfill,
according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association.

In a modern landfill, tightly packed mounsdsdbkkabdksdg

Dsff9f99f9dff

Dsff9f99f9dff

Dsaf46afa46sfds of waste are sealed under a rubber and clay barrier, and over a liner that keeps liquids
from seeping out.

For a household trash landfill (called a municipal solid waste landfill), the ground is lined first with clay
and then with a skin of flexible plastic about half an inch (1 centimeter) thick. Over this, drains and pipes
collect a liquid called leachate, which is the contaminated fluid that trickles out of the body of the
landfill.

Drained leachate is gathered in pools, allowed to settle and treated as wastewater before being

released. In 2008, 276 million gallons (1 billion liters) of leachate were collected from New York's
landfills, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

When the landfill has reached its capacity, the waste is covered with clay and another plastic shield.
Above that, several feet of dirt fill is topped with soil and plants, according to New York's DEC. Rainwater
that falls on the landfill runs through the layer of dirt and vegetation and over the protective plastic to
collection pools.