WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR WASTE
After trash is collected it goes to a Transfer Station. Then it goes into a Tracter Trailer that brings it into another state. Then it goes into a Landfill.
I have never seen a Transfer Station. I have heard about it, or seen on tv, or a computer.I have never heard about a Tracter Trailer in my life. I used to think when trash was collected it went straight to a landfill.
When I was young I thought that it would be put into new stuff. Now I know the truth. There are eight transfer stations in Atlanta. Landfills are big empty spaces that get filled up completely,
filled up by garbage in about a week or so. But before going to the landfill, the trash is at the transfer station, where a big tractor trailer takes it all away. Once the landfill is filled up, they go to another landfill. Sometimes it takes about three days for them to dig up a new landfill.
45% of the garbage goes to the landfill. 14% is burned. 32% is composting or reused. Some of the garbage is also thrown into the ocean. I learned alot of interesting facts about where the garbage goes.
A landfill is not just a dump where all the garbage is put. It is a specially made place for garbage so that poisons are not put into the ground and into the water.
Some garbage that goes into a landfill breaks down, due to the process of decomposition which is caused by microbes, small bacteria that 'eat' the garbage, but most does not.
At a Materials Recovery Facility, things that are reusable and recyclable are removed. The rest of the garbage is smashed together, which is called compacting, and then is sent to a landfill.
Some garbage can be burned and will turn into energy, but you have to be careful what you burn so that poison is not put into the air.
