Why are landfills unable to let garbage decompose?

It's not that they are unable, it's just that in many landfills the trash does not have enough access to oxygen and water to decompose because it is piled too tightly together. read more

Landfills do let garbage compose - it will rot away over time in a landfill. This has some negative impacts - but potentially also some positive ones. Negative - recycling commodities go to waste - i.e. they are not recycled. read more

Landfills are not designed to break down waste, only to store it, according to the NSWMA. But garbage in a landfill does decompose, albeit slowly and in a sealed, oxygen-free environment. Because of the lack of oxygen, bacteria in the waste produce methane gas, which is highly flammable and dangerous if allowed to collect underground. read more

It's not that they are unable, it's just that in many landfills the trash does not have enough access to oxygen and water to decompose because it is piled too tightly together. read more

However, the Garbage Project discovered easily identifiable food and yard waste that were years old. They estimate that food in landfills does degrade, but at a very slow rate—about 50 percent every 20 years. Even yard waste, by definition biodegradable, was found intact years later. read more