Landfilling

It has long been believed that the largest entity brought upon the Earth by humankind is the Pyramid of the Sun, constructed in Mexico around the start of the Christian era. The mammoth structure commands nearly thirty million cubic feet of space. In contrast, however, is the Durham Road Landfill, outside San Francisco, which occupies over seventy million cubic feet of the biosphere. It is a sad monument, indeed, to the excesses of modern society […

…to Earth-friendly uses, such as making barrier reefs. Plans for the safe incineration of refuse to generate electric power have presented some highly contentious issues. The ash from such incinerators is normally highly toxic, since it concentrates existing toxins, and must be disposed of as such. Citizens object to these plants, in a frenzy of Not-In-My-Backyard syndrome. A clear-cut answer is probably non-existent. Several effective programs, enacted in unison, will probably lead us to success.