How Landfill Works: There's Way More Going on Here than You Think (REUPLOAD)

[@megaprojects9649]

Head to www.squarespace.com/megaprojects to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code MEGAPROJECTS

[@SgtSnipey]

Why is this video half the time of the first?

[@MrDrake333]

Where do I find a roundspace?

[@throwaway7510]

Please link Practical Engineering YT channel so people can learn more about landfills and so on

[@samanthaberch]

Ditto

[@Sechnq]

most anticipated Megaprojects video ever

[@harrygardener2979]

Yes, we had a teaser title with a wrong upload 😂

[@facedeer]

I dunno, I kind of want to hear more about hurricanes.

[@Brianbd]

Finally uploaded the right one that matches the title! Woot woot. Only every megaprojects fan ever waited impatiently for lmao

[@infin1ty850]

Seriously, I never thought I would be disappointed that a video with the wrong title would be uploaded.

[@HyBr1dRaNg3r]

Amen😂

[@aste4949]

Garbage collectors and other sanitation workers deserve a lot more respect than they get. They're doing a huge and relentless service to society.

[@BMWE90HQ]

Agreed!

[@gabrielruiz3221]

All countries should impose mandatory garbage management work like some do with the military service

[@peterfalconer-h3k]

Dunno about anywhere else but in Western Australia garbos are paid well enough to not give a fuck about what anyone else thinks about their occupation.

[@JasbirSingh-zj1fg]

Trump rode in a garbage collecting truck today. I'm serious, look it up.

[@BMWE90HQ]

@ He’s about to win in a landslide!

[@user-qb4ex8mh5h]

Hey, the right one! Woohoo!

[@kodamag-bb2of]

Damn I was hoping it wasn’t lol

[@mikea69vette65]

🤣

[@professordeltagames6011]

I missed the other one, what happened?

[@stevenqu3]

Wait, where are the hurricanes??

[@justbrowsing6327]

​@professordeltagames6011 they had the same title but wrong video. 😂

[@michaelhughes9553]

Got it right this time. Good way to build my interest, Simon- I’ve been looking forward to this

[@chrisbentleywalkingandrambling]

Me three

[@scottbell6630]

The suspense... 😂

[@alexanderkueffler2440]

As a landfill worker and operator, this video is VERY well done and researched. Good job, basement dwelling writers!

[@hibby21]

came here to say the same thing!

[@unknowngamer37415]

Shh , you're not supposed to mention the basement.😂

[@davideyres955]

Thank you chaps, it’s a smelly job that is more essential than it’s recognised. You deserve a hell of a lot more respect than you are given.

[@jimhughes3961]

Are you in the mob?

[@dewilew2137]

Great surname, but you should go back to spelling it the German way, Küffler. There’s so many Anglicized German names today, and it’s a shame.

[@HeliophobicRiverman]

Never have people been so excited about a landfill video!

[@MadNitr0]

As some one who works as a heavy equipment mechanic at a landfill I can say that this is a well-informed video with good info

[@xessenceofinsanityx]

Never thought I'd be this eager to hear about landfill!

[@pmgn8444]

Yes! The episode lost in the landfill has been found! And it provides a good, balanced view of the issues. Well done guys.

[@MrJLCharbonneau]

Same landfill they found those lost copies of Atari’s E.T.

[@zachwhite4680]

Way to go! I actually work at a landfill and work on the leachate and methane extraction systems. So cool to listen to Simon explaining my job while I’m working on it lol

[@martinh2783]

I find the lack of hurricanes disturbing.

[@SaiakuNaSenshu]

I thought they were required for landfills

[@jackvos8047]

​@@SaiakuNaSenshuI don't think that they're required, but they do go a long way towards creating a need for one.

[@EmetYAHU]

Most disturbing

[@justingrey6008]

The is far less climatic then the last time I watched it.

[@boomznbladez405]

finally, the landfills we all deserved and waited for!!!

[@PerplexedPhoton]

I watched the whole other video wondering when we were going to learn about landfills and what the hell hurricanes had to do with them.

[@wadeepperson6906]

I know 😂

[@BeyonderPrime]

I thought I had a mandala effect and the video was called Landfall and that's why is was about hurricanes.

[@bannankev]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@theawesomeman9821]

probably uploaded by an intern

[@andrewwatson1690]

Yeah, it took me a while to work out something was off 😂

[@muddywater6856]

Good Video. As a Civil engineer, spent 30 years on design, construction, and operating different classes of landffills. Many variations of the design shown exist, but generally the same idea. Leachate production drops off to nothing fairly quickly once capped and closed. Methane also drops off. The methane recovery process is expensive, as it is typically of poor quality. I've also witnessed repairs on closed landfills where the waste is exposed and remarkably not deteriorated. Recycling is a bit of a front in many areas. If it can't be done profitably, it usually doesn't happen.

[@Royce16727]

Thanks for the re-upload. And thanks again for covering these complicated issues in such a concise, yet thorough way. Great video! Nuance is hard to come by.

[@GiottoMoon]

"Mount trashmore" that made me laugh much more than it should have, I am glad to see people have a sense of humour!

[@bannankev]

I love this comment section 🤣 every Simon mess up is made fun of… AS IT SHOULD, AM I RIGHT PETER!?!? 😂😂😂

[@GeorgeCrowe-d9v]

Now back to the basement where you belong Danny!

[@Mr-G131]

I spent like 2 hours this morning searching all of Simons channels looking for this vid. Knew I saw the thumbnail this weekend but didn't watch it yet. Sideprojects, Places, Megaprojects, BrainBlaze, Geographics, Decoding the Unknown, hell even Warfronts. I searched freaking EVERY channel I could think of that might have it looking for it KNOWING that I'd seen a video on it and gave up thinking I'd lost my damn mind...

[@exilbayer6377]

You had no chance: Simon had uploaded the worng video with this tumbnail, therefor all the hurrican-jokes here... But anyway: No human being knows for sure, how many channels Simon really has.

[@FormatException]

One of the things I would have liked to have seen in the video, to make the public more aware, is how the waste gets from their cans (or bins, if abroad) on the street to the land fill. I think a lot of people have it in their head that the garbage collectors take it to the landfill but in most cases this is incorrect except for very small municipalities. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is taken by the collectors to transfer stations located in industrial zoned areas of the city. From there the MSW is loaded via front loaders into trailers that can hold many more tons then the garbage collectors. These haulers then move the MSW to the landfill where the trailers are tipped out and all the MWS is deposited. In the US the landfills are likely owned by either Waste Management or Republic Services, as well as the transfer stations and recycling plants.

[@FrancisHoude]

You forgot waste connections.

[@smalltime0]

4:00 Paris still has a reputation for being filthy

[@JosephTrombley]

I live near Mt. Trashmore, the skatepark is cool and the whole concept of landfill to park is genius!

[@manoz6194]

Hearing the name made me lol

[@ThomasMills-m5c]

What the hell. Where's the hurricane?

[@KantoKait]

i was so confused watching the landfall (landfill) episode

[@crazyeyez1502]

Heyyyyyyy. I was expecting a Hurricane

[@demonorb8634]

Oh oh rock me like a hurricane... Oh it's the landfill one. 😝

[@brs690]

💯

[@dcos5]

We build landfill cells at my work! This is awesome seeing it get some attention. We do more than just landfill cells but they are just one of the type of civil earthwork type jobs we do.

[@Bohemianrevival]

Finally landfills!

[@chrishalemusic]

Was waiting for this the title had me the other day

[@UmbraFaux]

Right channel right video. Nice.

[@deejayimm]

Talk to people who work at your local landfill. Can only speak to my local one, but several employees have said that the "recycling" that you turn in, gets dumped with everything else.

[@JeffDeWitt]

I live outside the city limits and my trash is collected by a private company. You can request a recycling bin but I've never seen anyone use one.

[@paulbradford6475]

@@JeffDeWitt I live in a close suburb of Boston. Our city has been using what's called "single stream recycling" for years; All recyclable materials are thrown into one bin and collected every two weeks - no separation required. As to where all the trash goes, recyclable or not, after it's picked up, is anyone's guess. As long as it doesn't collect in the streets, we're okay.

[@omgandwtf1]

My understanding is that recycling initiatives start up and are run as you'd expect but over time the costs rise, especially since most people don't sort or properly disassemble/wash their recycling, it becomes to expensive to recycle everything so anything less profitable to recycle mostly plastics I think gets tossed. I think certain countries actually have pretty successful recycling programs, like Japan. If I'm not mistaken they have like 4 different recycling bins as standard so it's cheaper to recycle stuff. Now personally I think that level of effort is too much. I'd rather tax and regulate the big polluters in order to solve the problem rather than the individual having to make the effort. If we just taxed oil companies enough we could install enough solar panels and such to put said oil companies out of business eventually, and I wouldn't have to bother with any micro solutions. After all why do something that you can make someone else do?

[@paulbradford6475]

@YourAlcoholicUncle You never really know where it ends up.

[@Cursed_Bower]

That's a relief

[@MrAustrokiwi]

For a future video have a look at the Vienna Incinerator. Every so often it runs out of waste( used for electricity and pumping steam for heating around Vienna). Vienna solves the lack of waste by accepting rubbish( at a cost to those countries) from neighboring countries.

[@henryprice9493]

I've been thinking that some prospectors have a keen eye on old land fills for all sorts of valuables hidden in the pit. Mining up our old garbage just sounds kinda awesome like recycling what we never did.

[@biercenator]

As a cheery addendum, my parents spent their last years in a home for the elderly built on top of sanitary landfill. The land was condemned for construction of ordinary residences and businesses due to the possible cumulative effects of toxic chemicals beneath the soil on health, and notices to that effect were posted around the grounds.

[@jacobr3990]

I know there is allot more to most of what i learn from simon but dang if he hasnt made me sound way smarter to allot of people . Even impressing people who lived in korea or work in feilds you have covered . The last year my intrests have exploded thanks to simons work done allot of additional research based on stuff ibsee here thank you maga projecs team and simon

[@MaThista91]

16:46 perfect picture of where humanity is at the moment- single use plastic cups and bags that create residual waste which is not being recycled

[@jefffoy530]

Finally, it’s here!!

[@heighlander44]

A Megaprojects not about war! Wahoooo!!

[@amaze2708]

Back in the late 70s / early 80s my favorite days were going to the dump with my dad. Back then it was drive in, find a spot to dump it and drive out. I used to find the coolest stuff (like tetanus, dysentery.. no just broken pinball machines, bowling pins (good wood for turning inside those, and yes my dad let me use his lathe when I was a kid), tons of bottle caps for my collection, even found a discarded old computer that had massive capacitors in it and learned about those and screwdrivers). While yes, it’s much much better now and I don’t think it would be wise to go back to those days just so some weird kid can have a good time.. it was still a good time and great memories.

[@omgandwtf1]

We did that in the early 2000's although I think it was mostly furniture that just needed to be refurbished lik3 coffee tables and a few curios although I can't picture any furniture we actually kept from the landfall except maybe a newspaper bucket thing we put in the in law apartment.

[@craigfjay]

I wish there was more information about tropical hurricanes though

[@sseltrek1a2b]

love this channel-who knew about all this?...and yes- we live in the cleanest environment we lived in for decades, now...also- i remember seeing, "Toy Story 3", and was blown away by how sophisticated waste/trash processing was...

[@manyshnooks]

Omg the REAL video finally dropped

[@Rottidog68]

Checks the title... "Is this your final answer?"

[@Guspech750]

This is a great video. Only a small amount of people really know how landfills are designed and operate. I’ve drilled countless wells, gas probes and collection wells at many landfills over the last 29 years. And still I am intrigued and amazed at what goes into and what goes on at landfills. I’ve also drilled at countless old landfills that were constructed (use that term loosely) before regulations and have been closed for decades. It’s amazing how bad those old ones are nasty and leaking into the environment compared to more modern ones of the last 15-20 years.

[@friskyjesus]

I spent my childhood in Virginia Beach and yes Mt. Trashmore is a very real thing. I have very fond memories from visiting and, last I checked, I don’t have any extra limbs or horrible diseases from it.

[@IAEnginerd]

There’s also a Mount Trashmore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

[@bluebellncm]

I like that you mentioned waste to energy and waste to gas projects. Waste to energy plants have been around for a while and I feel have plateaued in popularity. RNG plants (this is the term I’m more familiar with) are growing in popularity. I’ve worked on Title V air permitting for all three of these industries, and the cost/benefit analyses for these options are complex. Good job expressing that!

[@hgoff5617]

Thanks for the informative and balanced video. One thing though - "Liners are 30-10 millimeters thick".... Wow - no its 30-100 mils thick. One mil is 0.01 inches.

[@muddywater6856]

Correct

[@RikRoots]

This (re-uploaded) video bought back memories of my time working on the UK Govt's waste strategy for England/Wales back in 2000. I never realised before then just how fascinating (and important!) waste management could be. Though my favourite memory of that time was the meetings I attended at Gatwick airport around seagulls and the strike dangers they caused to airplanes on takeoff/landing. Turns out that people like to build both airports and landfill sites close to - but not too close to - big cities. And seagulls really like landfill sites! All interesting, but my favourite memory was learning exactly how to survive an airplane crash, with added graphic details, from industry experts ... advice I hope I'll never have to use.

[@jamescox7007]

Proper story for thumbnail, thank you Simon.

[@Mike504]

Simon always uploads the correct video.... Allegedly

[@Hollylivengood]

And with tears in their eyes they sailed off looking for a place to take their half a ton of garbage.

[@martinnemeckay1052]

Just down the road from Alice's restaurant...

[@OutletVibes]

I had made a comment like 2 weeks ago on another video how Landfills are highly under valued for their engineering. So much complexity and thought goes into these massive places that no one thinks about.

[@Erranteumbra]

I appreciate that they are just not acknowledging the mistake they made haha

[@carsonm7292]

I took an environmental science class in college. We did a few field trips, including to the local landfill. I was a bit unenthused about the idea at first, but I wasn't the only one who came away surprised at just how interesting it was. The science and planning that goes into waste management is really intricate. While imperfect, they go to a lot of effort to minimize the environmental impact. It should be noted that while burning methane is obviously not the ideal form of electricity generation, that methane is going to go into the air anyway if you don't capture it, and the greenhouse gases that come from burning the methane are less (keyword LESS) harmful as greenhouse gases than the methane would have been.

[@sunshineravens]

I'm a bit shocked at how interesting I found this. 😂 Turns out I like listening to Simon talk about crap. :)

[@lukefrahn8538]

Next up: HOW RECYCLING (DOSEN'T) WORK: There's way less going on here than you think

[@uss-dh7909]

City gives you recycling bin. City sends out garbage truck that's painted blue which collects the recycling bins. Recycling truck dumps recycling in with the rest of the garbage. Next.

[@ShepherdsCreek]

​@uss-dh7909 you missed that the city gives you a fine for putting things in the wrong bin

[@rh661]

Just did my quarterly dump run yesterday. It got me wondering what the future of the local land fill would be. Timely and educational.

[@SaS-cs7hz]

Cool I was excited to see this

[@smokeyasmr]

There is also a Mt. Trashmore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that has trails and views and everything too!

[@thegameweeb6884]

Always happy to see when Virginia is mention, especially Virginia Beach ❤

[@xessenceofinsanityx]

12:53 I hate to break it to you, but 1987 is closer to four decades than two...

[@douglassauvageau7262]

The mundane but vital elements of modern Civil Engineering deserve our attention.

[@tamarothA]

I just KNEW Practical Engineering will be mentioned in some shape or form given that recently Grady had an episode about landfills

[@throwaway7510]

Too bad they didn't mention the channel in any way

[@deansch6089]

How Landfill Works: This Time We Mean It

[@nigelyorkshiremanwadeley6263]

I recall reading an article in New Scientist magazine many years ago about an initiative to burn waste with, if I remember correctly, a plasma like incinerator and the only waste products were a gas that could be collected and used as fuel and a powder like substance that could be utilised in building products.

[@petrus4]

Love your work, Simon.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:20 - Mid roll ads 2:45 - Back to the video 3:00 - Chapter 1 - The age of sanitation 6:50 - Chapter 2 - Modern landfill science 11:35 - Chapter 3 - Are landfills sustainable ?

[@knobjob2839]

Nice! They fixed it!

[@deansheets]

Correct video this time!!

[@DivideByZeroGetCake]

Radioactive landfills would be a good follow up episode They hold low level waste that isnt dangerous for very long

[@PaulJohn01]

I wish we could get landfills here in the Philippines ! Everyone still dumps their trash wherever they want or just continually burns it in their yard or along the streets. Usually right when i put laundry out to dry.

[@S_C702]

Tbh the tasty trash treatment was a lot more sophisticated than I expected; almost a little impressed 😂

[@AcornElectron]

10:33 vegetration eh? Good work factboi ❤😂

[@danhumble9199]

Landfill Jeremy, the fifth named landfill of the season, is expected to make landfall in Florida anytime soon.

[@exilbayer6377]

Simon is finally cleaning up the mess after the hurrican....😂

[@2down4up]

I live about two miles from a landfill. Back in the day when it was still active it was in the sticks. It was 20 miles away from the nearest town or habitation center! In fact the closest thing was a maximum security prison that has long been shut down. Now the habitation, towns, urban sprawl, whatever you call it have completely surrounded it and now extend at least another 20 or so miles out before your briefly in the sticks again. But not far past that point is another major metropolitan area. Anyways, there’s a decently sized town center, a golf driving range and several other businesses directly on top of it now. I only know it’s a landfill because I’m old. Well also it has a very man made shape on the hill top, in fact it’s called hilltop town center. There are several monitoring stations scattered about but most of them aren’t visible from any of the roads that go around it. However, one in particular vents burning methane. You can’t see it during in the daylight but when you drive by at night you’ll see a large swirling light blue to grayish flame. It’s actually rather beautiful to see and can be distracting. My wife who’s from a different state didn’t know it was an old sealed landfill until one day she commented on the vary unnaturally accurate shape of the part that nothing is on except vegetation and monitoring stations. She was rather shocked when I told her what it was it’s actually rather amazing when you think about it, or at least I think it is.

[@mikemcmike6427]

Yayy Simons doing an episode about Peurto Rico

[@SRW_]

Aw I wanted to hear about hurricanes :(

[@Dontworryboutit315]

As someone’s who’s trash is in a landfill I can vouch and say this video is researched very well

[@RefreshingShamrock]

5:43 I live just outside of a major city in Arizona. Even here in this day and age, my neighbors burn their trash in barrels. No trash collection services and it's too far to take it to the dump. Also, we discovered the hard way that the city has only 1 way to safely dispose of old gasoline: A collection site that's only open once a month. We could endure the smell of rotten gasoline for a few weeks, burn it and create even worse fumes, or we could dump the entire container into the septic system which is what we did.

[@omgandwtf1]

Why do you have rotten gasoline? I've never even heard of that, i know to some extent it expires from car restoration shows but that's in car that sat for many years I thought.

[@Cloudwolf785]

Glad to see Paris has managed to keep their reputation alive for so many years :3

[@vonkug]

A fried of mine made a diorama of medival sanitation once, tiny peasants hauling a dead horse through five inches of sewage. I went to a Renfaire as a cess-pool attendant, burlap clothing, and brown-filled mucking-bucket. Good time.

[@That_guy_Pip]

I remember the episode of Futurama where they referenced the barge 😂😂😂 Now to look into what they did.... Shoot the garbage into space 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@BrianStephens-c5t]

I actually worked at a landfill for a while. They pay third party day laborers (about 6 of us) to walk around with pointy sticks and garbage bags and pick up trash. Anything that blew off the piles, into the roads or ditches, was our responsibility. We made about 2$ less than minimum wage and all lived at a ‘Christian’ home. Where they received our direct deposits and charged us for everything. The goal was to never let us become independent and always owe.

[@Sesshyru]

Cool. I needed some good news. Thank you.

[@ParadiseQuestMangaka]

Switzerland has banned new landfills (we only monitor our old ones). Trash is rigorously sorted (recycling is free, trash is taxed!) and then incinerated with the added bonus of generating electricity and warmth, as areas around such incineration plants can often benefit from "Fernwärme" or "Chauffage à distance" where hot water is pumped directly into homes for heating purposes. This reduces the need for say, using oil to work the boiler in the house. Switzerland sits on important aquifers that we don't want polluted and with the areas suitable for landfills required for farming, we have long since abandoned something as archaic as a landfill. Fun fact: landfill seepage surveys are often done by old geologists because the companies don't want to deal with the risk of a younger geologist picking up some kind of long-term poisoning and potentially pass that on to their (unborn) children in the form of birth defects. So among my parents' peers (they're all geologists), "going to work at the landfill" is short for "I'll retire within the next 2-3 years".

[@AnthonyCarlyle]

Landfills?! LETS GOO!!

[@rtyrsson]

"Let's get into the globally accepted standard by which a landfill must operate." I have questions. Who established this standard? Who thinks they are going to enforce this particular standard? What are the enforcement mechanisms? And how does one rationalize this vis-a-vis national sovereignty? I understand Mr. Whistler is trying to describe an industry in the short span of 17 minutes, but national sovereignty must never be overlooked.

[@HouseOfShanks]

Heck yeah! Mt. Trashmore, I used to go there all the time growing up, it’s pretty awesome

[@pfrstreetgang7511]

I admit that after working at Rocky Flats during the "clean up," I have avoided thinking about landfills. Period.

[@roberthines479]

Hey Simon...I was expecting a hurricane video 😅

[@TillerMicroSkiffs]

As an environmental engineer, thanks for this video. ❤

[@snailpaste]

Wow this video was garbage! Thank you, very interesting. Love hearing more about behind the scenes of everyday things

[@jontalbot1]

I have long thought everyone should visit a landfill. The number of disposable nappies is astonishing

[@elormandarken]

In the UK. Kirklees in Yorkshire. Dewsbury ruby stadium and a housing estate, is built on a huge old land fill. Never saw plastics when I went there years ago lol

[@sharonsloan]

Yes! Been waiting for this one 🙂

[@SetllaArmstrong]

Don't let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can do.

[@coachhannah2403]

Studied landfill techniques in college. Mid-70s. Cool!

[@Thepriest39]

His mess up with loading the wrong video was probably intentional. It brought a lot of hype and anticipation.