At the landfill

There are things we take for granted. We throw our empty yoghurt pots, sweet wrappers, banana peels, broken toy cars and old newspapers into the waste bin. From time to time, it is emptied into the rubbish bin: open the lid, put the rubbish in, close the lid.

At some point, a garbage truck comes and takes away the contents of the garbage bin. But that’s not the end of the story. The garbage doesn’t simply disappear. So what actually happens to it?

The waste collected by the garbage service is usually taken either to an incineration plant or to a landfill. When garbage is burned, the heat can be used to heat homes or generate electricity.

Landfills can be found throughout the country. One, for example, is in the municipality of Wilsum in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in Lower Saxony. The district administration is responsible for running the landfill and collecting waste in the district. Large garbage trucks bring the district’s residual waste here. Many private individuals also bring their waste here. At the entrance, every vehicle has to drive over a weighbridge. Once the waste has been unloaded, the vehicle is weighed again. This makes it possible to determine how much the waste brought in weighed.

The fees are then calculated. There is no charge for bringing in waste paper, metals, old electrical appliances or garden waste. Near the entrance, there are containers where residents can drop off their waste. Signs help you sort the rubbish correctly. There are containers for scrap wood, metals, plastics, and so on.

You can also dispose of batteries, acids, paints, varnishes and other hazardous substances at the landfill. These are hazardous waste and must be disposed of carefully because they can cause considerable environmental damage.

The large garbage trucks take the residual waste they have collected on their routes to a large hall. Here, anything that can still be recycled in some way is picked out of the residual waste. Only waste that has no value left is deposited in the landfill.

This remaining waste is compacted with heavy machinery to take up as little space as possible. When the landfill is full, the piles of residual waste are covered with large tarpaulins. There are also tarpaulins beneath the waste. The landfill has a treatment plant for leachate. The Wilsum landfill also has an area where green waste is turned into compost. There are also several wind turbines on the site that generate electricity.