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Landfills traditionally have a reputation as unpleasant places, but many modern landfills are shaking up & breaking that image to the extent that even pre-school children have dropped in for a tour.

These days landfills can not actually be opened unless the operator gives detailed plans which the government environmental regulatory body will ensure they adhere to. Within the list of things the operator must stop is vermin, contaminated water from leaving the site, & the presence of large flocks of scavenging birds.

The landfills have been tidied up, & miraculously the litter which once could be seen around them has gone, & trees have been planted as screens. There is more. The new environmental regulations put in place over the last few years have, it seems, brought about a surprising conversion of these land fill sites. There is more. The old slightly disreputable school of management has departed & now it’s large firms with national & international reputations to maintain, which are running these places, & they want to educate the next generation. So they have added new centers for teaching environmental respect, & a love of their natural surroundings, to all ages.

Every year each student intake will visit & be given the lessons that you (society) really can not throw anything away & just forget it… If you do, there will be bad effects on the environment from the rotting of these materials in such enormous quantities which just grow every year, & need ever more cash to be thrown at preventing damage to the environment. OK. So, by learning about waste in these centers the visitors will go away to take some responsibility for reducing the waste they produce.

Each visitor can hardly fail to leave without a much deeper understanding of the problems faced by landfill operators to stop nuisance & environmental damage. It’s not easy & the new measures do cost a lot of money… The message of waste reduction, recycling & re-use has been well-accepted by students, judging by their positive feedback.

From time to time parties of visitors from around the world also come to see the landfill facilities on these sites. Right. Without exception they inform the landfill resource centre staff of their wish that such high quality landfilling with protection of the environment be as well implemented in their own countries. Clearly, the benefit of these facilities isn’t just local, but also far reaching. It always delights the landfill resource centre staff when experts from other nations are obviously impressed by the techniques our operators use to collect & treat he leachate, & to extract & harness the landfill gas to produce green renewable energy.

It is very rewarding to the resource centre site to see all ages & generations so willing to get involved at the growing number of these centers in so many green & environmentally relevant topics.

While the work goes on inside the conservation centers, the landfill staff continue their jobs around the educational hub, on a daily basis,. So, visitors do see the landfill site staff closely monitor traffic & make arrangements to ensure it doesn’t pile up. The guide os good practice aims to have vehicles in & out of landfills within forty minutes & in at these sites for the majority of the time the delay is much less..

From landfill site owners to residents, as soon as they get over the initial surprise at the thought that a landfill site visit could be anything other than fly ridden, dusty, & smelly, a landfill educational visitor centre becomes a real asset.

Steve Symes regularly writes on Waste issues. He feels that the environmental debate is too important to leave to the boffins. Clear? If you think so too then visit his Blog at Renewable Energy News, or his main site at The Landfill Site Web Site: Everything to do with landfills & landfilling

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