Effects of over-population on landfills

When you think about landfills and the increasing number of people living on this Earth today, it almost seems obvious that the amount of garbage thrown away a year would increase. Not only does it effect the amount of space to throw away trash, but it is also effecting our water quality in the long run. As mentioned previously, landfills have plastic liners that keeps the trash together. The only bad thing about those liners is that they do not last forever. Even landfills that have double liners begin to leak toxins in the soil which eventually gets into the ground water (Laura Ross, eHow.com). In 1988, there was a study done that showed that in 5 years, any available land space in Ohio would have to be used as a landfill because the increasing amount of trash. Thanks to the State Legislature, this did not happen because they passed laws to limit the amount of trash that they were using. Although the plan worked for the last 22 years, it is unknown what will happen in the future with the increasing population (http://www.pregnantpause.org/overpop/trash.htm). If each state starts reaching their max capacity to store trash, there would be a crisis, and as mentioned before, the more trash the weaker the leachete system. More and more toxic materials would get into our water system, causing a large unhealthy human population and a vanishing animal mass.

Jay Johansen , The Landfill Crisis. 9/10/2000.
http://www.pregnantpause.org/overpop/trash.htm

Ross, Laura, eHow.com, Environmental Problems Due To Overpopulation . 4/15/2010.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6302037_environmental-problems-due-overpopulation.html