My trip to the Dump

On Thursday this past week we all woke up bright and early and made our way to the dump. It was quite cold, coldest day Brazil has had in years in fact and the cherry on top of it all? It was raining. However, being a morning person who literally wore layers on layers of clothing to stay warm, packed snacks, and had her daily cup of coffee I was feeling pretty good! We got there and had a presentation about the workings of the landfill and how they harness the energy and gases from the trash. We then were taken around to a few different places to see it all up close and personal. At this point the smell was a little atrocious but nothing a scarf over my nose couldn't help with!

Because trash emanates harmful gases such as methane, the landfill has to put measures in place to keep that from building up and creating an explosion. This has happened before in other locations so many safety measures are put in place. They also have measures in place to keep the contaminants away from the drinking water below and are testing the water, vegetation, and animals in the area twice a day.

The landfill collects the gases that come from the trash and first separates the different gases by condensing them. They then separate them again using centrifugal blowers which tells them what exactly the gas contains. Because the trash is not always consistent and there can be many differences, the gas they capture is different every day. The next part helps to tell them what the mixture is. They then burn the gas in a contained area and hopefully use that to help create power. The landfill we were at didn't have the capacity yet to generate powers but the other ones near by did and we went to see where the power is generated!

And finally we got to see the generators which generate the power! I think it's pretty awesome that they are literally taking trash, something humans will always be creating, and getting energy out of it. It decreases the volume the trash takes up, creates energy form something that won't get used for anything else or will run out, and it's relatively safe for the environment! I think the US should definitely adopt this idea in more areas because from what I know we don't have a better plan in place for trash disposal or for finding new ways to create energy. However, the smell of it and the "idea" of having a dump near your home is very unappealing which I can understand. If the government offered incentives to people within a certain radius it may help to alleviate any anger that residents in the US may have of putting up a landfill near by. They do cover the hills with trash so when finished you can't even tell what you're looking at! Overall, I think the idea of it is smart and something that will eventually be adopted all over the world!