{"id":231135,"date":"2023-03-15T20:11:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T14:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=231135"},"modified":"2023-03-15T20:11:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T14:41:48","slug":"why-do-landfills-catch-fire-during-summers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-do-landfills-catch-fire-during-summers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do landfills catch fire during summers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cWhy do landfills catch fire during summers?<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on\u00a015th<\/sup> March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Environmental pollution and degradation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>measures needed to prevent landfill fires<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Kochi landfill site caught fire earlier this month. This reminds the Indian cities to be prepared for such incidents in upcoming summer months.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons behind the landfill fire?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India\u2019s municipalities collect more than 95% of the waste generated in cities but the efficiency of waste-processing is 30-40%. Therefore, unprocessed waste remains in open landfills for long periods of time.<\/p>\n

This openly disposed waste includes flammable material like low-quality plastics, rags and clothes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further, the biodegradable fraction composts much faster in summers<\/strong>. This in turn increases the temperature of the disposed wastes beyond 70-80\u00b0C. This high temperature along with flammable material makes fire possible in the landfill.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> Dump This Practice – Kochi garbage fire is a warning to all cities <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What can be done to prevent landfill fires?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First,<\/strong> the disposed material can be completely capped,<\/strong> and landfills be closed in a scientific manner.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, this solution is not suitable for India<\/strong> because the land can\u2019t be used again for other purposes and there are also specific operating procedures for the closed landfills.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> bioremediation techniques<\/strong> can be adopted to clear the piles of waste. Automated sieving machines<\/strong> can be used to segregate the flammable refuse-derived fuel (RDF<\/strong>) (plastics, rags, clothes, etc.) from biodegradable material.<\/p>\n

The RDF can be sent to cement kilns as fuel while the bio-soil can be distributed to farmers to enrich soil.<\/p>\n

However, implementing a bioremediation project usually takes up to two or three years. Therefore, there is a need for short-term solutions for landfill fires.<\/p>\n

What are the short-term solutions available for landfill fire?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The landfill site can be divided into blocks<\/strong> depending on the nature of the waste.<\/p>\n

Blocks with fresh waste should be separated from blocks with flammable material at each landfill site. The blocks can be separated using a drain or soil bund<\/strong> and a layer of soil should cap each block.<\/p>\n

The most vulnerable part of the landfill<\/strong> which contains lots of plastics and cloth should be completely capped with soil.<\/p>\n

After the division of the landfill into blocks, the landfill operator should classify incoming waste and dispose of it in designated blocks rather than mixing it.<\/p>\n

Non-recyclable and non-biodegradable segregated wastes should be sent to cement kilns instead of accumulating them. Dry grass material and dry trees from the site should also be cleared immediately.<\/p>\n

These are some short-term measures that can be adopted. However, a permanent and long-term solution is needed.<\/p>\n

What can be the long-term solution?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The long-term solution can be adopted by ensuring cities have a systematic waste-processing system where wet and dry waste are processed separately and their byproducts treated accordingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cWhy do landfills catch fire during summers?\u201d published in The Hindu on\u00a015th March 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Environmental pollution and degradation Relevance: measures needed to prevent landfill fires News: The Kochi landfill site caught fire earlier this month. This reminds the Indian cities to be prepared for… Continue reading Why do landfills catch fire during summers?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-231135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}