This explanation helps 10-year-olds understand what landfills are, how they work, and where our waste ends up.
Hi there! Let’s talk about landfills and where our trash goes when we throw it away.
A landfill is like a big, open area where we take all the garbage that we can't recycle or compost. When you throw something in the trash, like an old toy or food scraps, it often ends up in a landfill.
1. Finding a Suitable Location: First, people need to find the right place for a landfill. It must be far away from homes, rivers, and lakes to keep the environment safe.
2. Preparing the Area: Once they find the right spot, workers dig a deep hole in the ground. This hole is lined with heavy plastic or clay to keep toxins from leaking into the soil.
3. Adding Garbage: Now, garbage trucks can start bringing in trash! They dump the waste into the hole. As more trash comes in, the hole gets filled up.
Inside the landfill, the garbage is compressed, which means it’s squished down to take up less space. Over time, the trash breaks down, but this process can take a very long time, sometimes many years!
We use landfills to manage waste because it helps keep our neighborhoods clean. It’s important to have a place to put trash that can’t be reused or recycled. However, we also try to reduce how much waste we create, so we can protect our planet.
Yes! You can help reduce the amount of trash we send to landfills by:
So, landfills are places where we put trash, but we can all do our part to create less waste and help the environment. It’s important for everyone to understand where our garbage goes so we can work together for a cleaner planet!