Comments on: The World’s Most Offensive Landfills

By: Carbon Footprint of US Junk Mail Equivalent to 480,000 Cars

Carbon Footprint of US Junk Mail Equivalent to 480,000 Cars — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:54:51 +0000

[...] each week, or 560 pieces a year. This amounts to 4.5 million tons of junk mail yearly, of which 44% goes straight to the landfill unopened and [...]

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By: VagabonderZ

VagabonderZ — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:19:47 +0000

Disturbing…I remember kayaking in Halong Bay and seeing plastic bag after plastic bag floating like jellyfish. Mind you, I think it's the locals there just tossing their junk overboard or out of their floating homes…and don't even get me started on Italy and Russia *shudder*

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By: VagabonderZ

VagabonderZ — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:16:21 +0000

Depends who you ask…some would say the two terms are interchangeable, but others would say a dump is just a hole in the ground with trash in it with no regard to how it is dealt with, while a landfill is a carefully monitored and engineered "dump", that is lined to prevent leachate form going into the soil, etc. I'll see if I can locate a copy of that essay…thanks!

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By: Sarah_Menkedick

Sarah_Menkedick — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:54:43 +0000

Great, if disturbing article. You'll have to excuse my painful ignorance ahead of time if this is a really lame question, but what exactly is the difference between a "dump" and a landfill? I remember reading about some atrocious dumps in Mexico City and the Philippines. There is a great essay in the Best American Travel Essays (I think 2007) about the Patayas dump in Manila. Thousands of people make their living scavenging these dumps. And there are rarely any sorts of environmental regulations preventing the leachate from contaminating groundwater and whatnot.

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By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:35:31 +0000

wonder if there was ever a ham sandwich inside.

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By: Theodore_Scott

Theodore_Scott — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:52:07 +0000

As Officer of the Deck, I used see all sorts of strange stuff out in the Pacific. There are a lot of little pieces of junk, but every once in a while, out in the middle of nowhere, a full-size refrigerator would float by the ship.