Saturday, July 27, 2013

Entry #17 - Sao Joao Landfill

On Thursday, we visited the Sao Joao Landfill located 1 and a half hours east from the city of Sao Paulo. Unfortunately, the weather that day wasn't adequate enough to visit this site. It was cold and raining, thereby, we all didn't feel stimulated to ask a lot questions about the functioning of the landfill.

Sao Joao Landfill is actually closed for operation. It opened in 1992 and closed in 2009 so it operated for 17 years. It had a waste capacity of 30 million tons. Since it was closed, we went to another landfill located within the same complex called East Central of Waste Treatment, which is operated by a company called Eco Urbis, which started operations in 2004. A worker for the company gave a brief presentation about the construction and functioning of landfills. She said that they have to put a layer of a plastic called polyethylene on the bottom of the land so that the leachate, which is the contaminating liquid produce by the trash, doesn't filter into the soil and contaminate nearby water sources. To get rid of this liquid, they built a draine that takes this waste to a pool where they treat it afterwards.

This landfill is still under development. The company is still having trouble with the smell produced by the trash, which is why we went there it smelled so awful. Also, she said that it smells worse while it's raining. Either way, this seems to be a problem that needs to be solved soon so that it doesn't affect nearby communities. Moreover, there isn't a clear plan regarding the future of the landfill because they're still not sure that producing energy through the landfill is the right way to go considering that this wasn't profitable in Sao Joao Landfill. Although Sao Joao Landfill is closed, the power plant in that site is still in operation because the company who operates it, Biogas, still hasn't recovered their investment for the electric production system from biogas. We actually visited this plant, and they explained to us the process of getting the gas from the trash, and also, they explained all the security measurement they implement in case they have fire or any sort of accident. As soon as you come in, you see a sign that says that they haven't n\had any accidents for more than 600 days, which for this type of plants is really good. 

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