Directions: For questions 1-7, mark Y (for YES) if
the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT
GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. For questions 8-10,
complete the sentences with the information given in the passage. Landfills You have just
finished your meal at a fast food restaurant and you throw your uneaten food,
food wrappers, drink cups, utensils and napkins into the trash can. You don’t
think about that waste again. On trash pickup day in your neighborhood, you push
your can out to the curb, and workers dump the contents into a big truck and
haul it away. You don’t have to think about that waste again, either. But maybe
you have wondered, as you watch the trash truck pull away, just where that
garbage ends up. Americans generate trash at an astonishing rate
of four pounds per day per person; which translates to 600,000 tons per day or
210 million tons per year! This is almost twice as much trash per person as most
other major countries. What happens to this trash Some gets recycled (回收利用) or
recovered and some is burned, but the majority is buried in landfills. How Much Trash Is Generated Of the 210
million tons of trash, or solid waste, generated in the United States annually,
about 56 million tons, or 27 percent, is either recycled (glass, paper products,
plastic, metals) or composted (做成堆肥) (yard waste). The remaining trash, which is
mostly unredeemable, is discarded. How Is Trash Disposed
Of The trash production in the United States has
almost tripled since 1960. This trash is handled in various ways. About 27
percent of the trash is recycled or composted, 16 percent is burned and 57
percent is buried in landfills. The amount of trash buried in landfills has
doubled since 1960. The United States ranks somewhere in the middle of the major
countries (United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and Japan) in landfill
disposal. The United Kingdom ranks highest, burying about 90 percent of its
solid waste in landfills. There Are Two Ways to Bury
Trash: Dump-an open hole in the ground where trash is
buried and that is full of various animals (rats, mice, birds). (This is most
people’s idea of a landfill!) Landfill-carefully designed
structure built into or on top of the ground in which trash is isolated from the
surrounding environment (groundwater, air, rain). This isolation is accomplished
with a bottom liner and daily covering of soil. Sanitary
landfill-landfill that uses a clay liner to isolate the trash from the
environment. Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill-landfill that
uses a synthetic (plastic) liner to isolate the trash from the
environment. The purpose of a landfill is to bury the trash in
such a way that it will be isolated from groundwater, will be kept dry and will
not be in contact with air. Under these conditions, trash will not
decompose(腐烂)much. A landfill is not like a compost pile, where the purpose is
to bury trash in such a way that it will decompose quickly. Proposing the
Landfill For a landfill to be built, the operators have to make
sure that they follow certain steps. In most parts of the world, there are
regulations that govern where a landfill can be placed and how it can operate.
The whole process begins with someone proposing the landfill. In
the United States, taking care of trash and building landfills are local
governments’ responsibilities. Before a city or other authority can build a
landfill, an environmental impact study, must be done on the proposed site to
determine: the area of land necessary for the landfill
the composition of the underlying soil and bedrock the
flow of surface water over the site the impact of the proposed
landfill on the local environment and wildlife the historical
value of the proposed site Building the
Landfill Once the environmental impact study is
complete, the permits are granted and the funds have been raised, then
construction begins. First, access roads to the landfill site must be built if
they do not already exist. There roads will be used by construction
equipment, sanitation (环卫) services and the general public. After roads have
been built, digging can begin. In the North Wake Country Landfill, the landfill
began 10 feet below the road surface. What Happens to
Trash in a Landfill Trash put in a landfill will stay
there for a very long time. Inside a landfill, there is little oxygen and little
moisture. Under these conditions, trash does not break down very rapidly. In
fact, when old landfills have been dug up or sampled, 40 years old newspapers
have been found with easily readable print. Landfills are not designed to break
down trash, merely to bury it. When a landfill closes, the site, especially the
groundwater, must be monitored and maintained for up to 30 years! How Is a
Landfill Operated A landfill, such as the North Wake County
Landfill, must be open and available every day.Customers are typically
municipalities and construction companies, although residents may also use
the landfill. Near the entrance of the landfill is a recycling
centre where residents can drop off recyclable materials (aluminum cans, glass
bottles, newspapers and paper products). This helps to reduce the amount of
materials in the landfill. Some of these materials are banned from landfills by
law because they can be recycled. As customers enter the site,
their trucks are weighed at the scale house. Customers are charged tipping fees
for using the site. The tipping fees vary from $10 to $ 40 per ton. These fees
are used to pay for operation costs. The North Wake County Landfill has an
operating budget of approximately $ 4. S million, and part of that comes from
tipping fees. Along the site, there are drop-off stations for
materials that are not wanted or legally banned by the landfill. A
multi-material drop-off station is used for tires, motor oil, and lead acid
batteries. Some of these materials can be recycled. In addition,
there is a household hazardous waste drop-off station for chemicals (paints,
pesticides, other chemicals) that are banned from the landfill. These chemicals
are disposed of by private companies. Some paints can be recycled and some
organic chemicals can be burned in furnaces or power plants.
Other structures alongside the landfill are the borrowed area that
supplies the soil for the landfill, the runoff collection pond and methane (甲烷)
station. Landfills are complicated structures that, when
properly designed and managed, serve an important purpose. In the future, new
technologies called bioreactors will be used to speed the breakdown of trash in
landfills and produce more methane. Customers are typically______, although residents may also use the landfill.