Rubbish polution

Rubbish is everything we throw away. Everything we put in the bin goes to a rubbish dump.

Once a week the bin lorry comes to your house to empty your wheelie bin. The bin lorry takes all the rubbish to the landfill site. The landfill site is a big hole in the ground, and all the rubbish in the big lorry gets dumped into it.
What happens to our rubbish?

About 80% of all rubbish ends up in landfill sites.

These are large pits filled with rubbish and covered up with soil. Most of these are already full up.

Diggers spread out the rubbish and squash it all down to make room for more rubbish. Once it is full up, it is covered with soil to hide it.

The problem is, all our landfill sites are getting fuller and fuller, and soon we will need some new ones. Landfills are ugly, smelly and dangerous.
It wouldn't be very nice if a new landfill site was opened near your house, would it??!

Landfill sites also pollute the air with methane. Methane is a gas that is produced as the rubbish rots underground. Pipes inserted into the ground let the gas out so that there are no explosions underground.

Some people throw their rubbish at the side of country roads.

Other people dump their rubbish into the sea.

This can harm all sorts of animals – birds, fish and mammals. It is also very ugly and destroys the looks of our beautiful countryside.

The amount of rubbish is increasing and costing more to get rid of, which you will have to fund through your taxes!
Each person produces 100 bags of rubbish every year & it's increasing!

What do you think?
We have to put our rubbish somewhere.
Landfill is a cheap and easy option!
Landfills are usually holes left over from quarries. We don’t have to dig new holes.
Some of the waste will take hundreds, even thousands of years to rot away.

What do you think?
Many of the landfill holes will soon be full.
I don’t want to live near a landfill, they are dirty, smelly and noisy.
Landfill produces a type of gas called methane which can be explosive and damages the environment.
We soon need to find new landfills to use.

Where would we put new landfills?
Here?

Where would we put new landfills?
Here?

We all have to do our best to take care of our planet.