Posted by leah on December 15, 2003

Q: i've been doing lots of research regarding waste reduction and recycling and would like to include some information about decomposition rates; comparing regular decomposition rates vs. landfill decomposition rates. i already have regular decomposition rates for specific items, but do you have any access to specific information about the decomposition of materials in a landfill? thanks!

p.s.- as a naturalist-to-be, i really enjoy your website. it's a great resource & it's wonderful to see what other naturalists are doing. thanks again.

A: This is an especially interesting and important bit of information for people to understand. Believe it or not, decomposition in today's landfills is almost non-existent. Landfills are designed to eliminate decomposition by eliminating moisture and air from reaching the buried materials, so bacterial action is almost entirely stopped. Concern for landfill leakage into the groundwater has prompted construction of landfills to be well lined on the bottom and well capped on the top. Researchers have excavated and looked at materials from modern landfills and found items to be almost unchanged after years of internment. Kind of scary, isn't it?

John Wiessinger ( December 20, 2003)