The island Paradise Built on a Garbage Dump

In Pulau Semakau Singapore there is a new type of dump. The landfills on the mainland have long since been filled up and a new dump has been designed and space on the main island is hard to come by. Espcially for a landfill. The landfill has been assigned to two islands off the shore of Singapore. The islands are connected by a long rock embankment and are lined with clay and thick plastic to keep toxic wastes from leaking through into the ground of the environment. All of the waste is sent through an incerators and is reduced to 10% of the original volume. Saving space and reducing the chance of waste hurting the environment. All of the waste is put into "cells" inside of the landfill. Once the cells is full is covered in dirt and grass is planted over it. The 11 cells in the landfill should last Singapore until the year 2040, four have been used since its construction in 1999. The wildlife around the landfill is not negatively effected either. The species of plant and animals and flourishing and new species are accounted for even after the building of the new landfill. Proving that there is a "balance between the need of urban development and nature conservation." Wang Luan Keng

This is such a great development! For years i have been wondering if there wasn't anything more we could do to lessen the amount of waste that humans produce. Unfortunately I think humans will always be wasteful and won't think of the consequences of it, but this is such a huge step to cleaning our mistakes. It is a good thing to kow that this landfill is not harming the environment but may also be helping it too! That is such a huge accomplishment. Landfills are so disgusting with all of the leftover garbage that we are sick of looking at. Most of the stuff we throw away could be recylced or reused in some way or another. it's too bad that we don't try to save our environment more. I am just as guilty about this as the next person is and i am trying to not be so wasteful anymore. I only hope that the rest of the world can follow in Singapore's footsteps and help save the world one landfill at a time.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/07/26/ji.semakaulandfill/index.html