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Land Pollution
Littering
We dispose of many things every day ranging from commonplace rubbish to old newspapers, packaging, and many other types of scrap. Commercial packaging are a common sight in all parts of the world. Our daily necessities such as food, drinks, clothing, medication, furniture, technology, publications etc all come in certain forms of packaging. It’s main purpose is to shield the contents from harm. The only problem with packaging material is that these materials are made to be disposable. Most of these packaging are not harmful to the environment in terms of toxicity. However, most of these materials do not decay easily once disposed and enhance the volumes of solid litter that we create.
Besides destroying the beauty of our land, litters also destroy the cleanliness of our land and exposed us to the risks of diseases infection. Some of these litters are non-biodegradable and will not disintegrate over long periods of time. Imagine the smell and the unsightly image of a used diaper lying in the corner of the streets. That is how litter destroys our land.
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Landfills
As the population density became more concentrated, the amount of garbage produced increased. Types of wastes include garbage, rubbish, ashes, mining wastes and agriculture wastes. As some wastes are hazardous, these wastes cannot be incinerated. Instead, they are buried in landfills, and this might lead to more problems. Emissions from landfills are the biggest concern of landfills. There are two forms of emissions by landfills, namely emissions to our atmosphere and emissions to our waters.
Over a long period of time, landfills will start to emit landfill gases. Landfill gas is produced due to the anaerobic conditions that organic wastes decomposed in. Furthermore, most of the wastes buried in landfills are not adequately treated to and generates hazardous byproducts which are harmful to our health standards.
Another problem is the shortage of landfill sites. We lose over 15 million acres of land every single year for landfill sites and this trend will continue if people don not recycle and eventually, we will run out of landfills.
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Mining activities
Mining is also a source of land pollution. Huge holes are dug in mining, and these holes form can pose a hazard to us as they form deep mining pools. Metals like cadmium and lead will be deposited, which are toxic, contaminating the soil. This will leave the mining land barren and unable to use again. Other metals such as copper may be deposited in hazardous amounts, and when they accumulate over years. These deposits take hundreds and thousands of years to disperse naturally to neutral level. Another issue of mining is the production of mine dust. Mine dust contains particulate matter which might harm our respiratory system.
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Agriculture
The use of pesticides and herbicides in agriculture activities pollute land when they are washed into the soil. These chemicals are highly toxic and pose a dangerous threat to our health.
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Read more in effects of land pollution.