In Ohio, nearly half the counties do not have principal, public landfills. This situation does not look better for the future as new landfill sitings are few and normally fraught with difficulty. This fact sheet will explore the current status of landfills as a component of an integrated solid waste management system. At least once a day the wastes are covered with a layer of earth and then compacted again. This is not the image most people have of landfills, however.
Most people remember the many open dump sites that used to be the norm for disposal.
These were often nothing more than valleys or quarries or mines whose owners decided to allow people to dump trash. Along with solid wastes, into these open dumps went all kinds of household and commercial hazardous wastes and industrial materials. The open dump was a hazard because of its potential for producing leachate, becoming a rodent and insect breeding ground, and its general health dangers. Even though the open dump is now illegal and those landfills that do not comply to sanitary standards are being closed, the image many people have of waste management is the image of the open dump. This is one misperception of waste management as it relates to landfills that encourages a groundswell of opposition whenever a landfill is to be sited.