{"id":33441,"date":"2023-03-15T01:45:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T20:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33441"},"modified":"2025-04-19T22:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:53:10","slug":"why-do-landfills-catch-fire-during-summers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/why-do-landfills-catch-fire-during-summers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Landfills Catch Fire During Summers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How do Landfills catch fire?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Solution?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are Some Immediate Measures?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Kochi landfill site around Brahmapuram that caught fire earlier this month is a stark reminder that Indian cities need to be prepared for more such incidents as summer approaches.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do Landfills catch fire?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s Municipalities have been collecting more than 95% of the waste generated in cities but the efficiency of waste-processing is hardly 30-40%.<\/li>\n<li>Municipal <i><strong>solid waste consists of about 60% biodegradable material, 25% non-biodegradable material and 15% inert materials<\/strong><\/i>, like silt and stone.<\/li>\n<li>Municipalities are expected to process the wet and dry waste separately and to have the recovered by-products recycled.<\/li>\n<li>Unfortunately, the rate of processing in India\u2019s cities is far lower than the rate of waste generation. Hence, unprocessed waste remains in open land\ufb01lls for long periods of time.<\/li>\n<li>This <i><strong>openly disposed waste includes \ufb02ammable material like low-quality plastics, which have a relatively higher calori\ufb01c value of about 2,500\u00ad3,000 kcal\/kg, and rags and clothes<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>In summer, the biodegradable fraction composts much faster, increasing the temperature of the heap to beyond 70\u00ad80\u00b0C.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>A higher temperature coupled with \ufb02ammable materials is the perfect situation for a land\ufb01ll to catch \ufb01re<\/strong><\/i>. Some \ufb01res go on for months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Solution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are two possible permanent solutions to manage land\ufb01ll \ufb01res.\n<ul>\n<li>The <i><strong>\ufb01rst solution is to completely cap the material using soil, and close land\ufb01lls in a scienti\ufb01c manner<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>This solution is unsuitable in the Indian context, as the land can\u2019t be used again for other purposes.<\/li>\n<li>Closed land\ufb01lls have speci\ufb01c standard operating procedures, including managing the methane emissions.<\/li>\n<li>The <i><strong>second solution is to clear the piles of waste through<\/strong><\/i> <i><strong>bioremediation<\/strong><\/i>.\n<ul>\n<li>Bioremediation is the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced <strong>microorganisms<\/strong> to consume and break down environmental pollutants, in order to clean a polluted site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>However, <i><strong>implementing a bioremediation project usually takes up to two or three years<\/strong><\/i>, necessitating a short-term solution for summertime land\ufb01ll \ufb01res.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are Some Immediate Measures?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Land\ufb01ll sites span 20\u00ad30 acres and have di\ufb00erent kinds of waste.<\/li>\n<li>The \ufb01rst immediate action is to <i><strong>divide a site into blocks depending on the nature of the waste<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>At each site, blocks with fresh waste should be separated from blocks with flammable material.\n<ul>\n<li>Blocks that have been capped using soil are less likely to catch \ufb01re, so portions like these should also be separated out.<\/li>\n<li>The <i><strong>di\ufb00erent blocks should ideally be separated using a drain or soil bund and a layer of soil should cap each block<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>This reduces the chance of \ufb01res spreading across blocks within the same land\ufb01ll.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Next, the most vulnerable part of the land\ufb01ll \u2014 the portion with lots of plastics and cloth \u2014 should be capped with soil.\n<ul>\n<li>The <i><strong>fresh waste block shouldn\u2019t be capped but enough moisture should be provided by sprinkling water which will help cool the waste heap<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Once a site has been divided into blocks, the <i><strong>land\ufb01ll operator should classify incoming waste on arrival to the site, and dispose them in designated blocks rather than dumping mixed fractions<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Already segregated non\u00adrecyclable and non\u00adbiodegradable waste should be sent to cement kilns instead of being allowed to accumulate.\n<ul>\n<li>Dry grass material and dry trees from the site should also be cleared immediately.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>While the above mentioned measures can help reduce the \ufb01res\u2019 damage, they\u2019re far from ideal and not long-term solutions.<\/li>\n<li>The permanent and essential solution is to <i><strong>ensure cities have a systematic waste processing system where wet and dry waste are processed separately and their by-products treated accordingly<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q). What are examples of Biowaste?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Biological waste is any material that contains or has been contaminated by a biohazardous agent. Biological waste includes, but is not limited to; Petri dishes, surgical wraps, culture tubes, syringes, needles, blood vials, absorbent material, personal protective equipment and pipette tips.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>What is Biomagnification?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Biomagnification, also known as bio amplification or biological magnification, is the increase in concentration of a substance, e.g a pesticide, in the tissues of organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/explained-why-do-landfills-catch-fire-and-what-can-we-do-about-them\/article66618251.ece#:~:text=In%20summer%2C%20the%20biodegradable%20fraction,to%20go%20on%20for%20months\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Explained | Why do landfills catch fire and what can we do about them?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Landfill is a system of trash and garbage disposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}