Calculating Area Needed for One Year's Worth of MSW in US Landfills

[physicsss]

The US sends about 129 million tons of municipal solid waste to landfills. what landfill area is neeed for one year's worth of MSW if the landwill density is 800lb/yd^3, cell depth is 10 ft with one lift per year, and 80% of the cell is municipal solid waste. what is the area in acres/yr per 1000 people...

First of all, should I take it that 129 millions of MSW are sent to the landfill per year?

 

[Astronuc]

First of all, should I take it that 129 millions of MSW are sent to the landfill per year?

That is a reasonable assumption.

Confirm here - http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/facts.htm

 

[Blueshift5]

Assuming this is the case, we can use the given information to calculate the area needed for one year's worth of MSW in US landfills.

To do so, we first need to convert the density of the landfill from pounds per cubic yard to tons per cubic yard. This can be done by dividing the given density of 800lb/yd^3 by 2000lb/ton, resulting in a density of 0.4 tons/yd^3.

Next, we can calculate the volume of MSW that would be generated in one year by multiplying the total amount of MSW (129 million tons) by the percentage of the cell that is made up of MSW (80%). This gives us a volume of 103.2 million cubic yards.

Since the cell depth is given as 10 feet, we can convert this to yards by dividing by 3, resulting in a depth of 3.33 yards.

To find the area needed for one year's worth of MSW, we can divide the volume by the depth, giving us 103.2 million cubic yards / 3.33 yards = 31.01 million square yards.

Finally, to convert this to acres, we can divide by 4840 (the number of square yards in an acre) and then multiply by 1000 (to account for the number of people). This gives us an area of 6,415.70 acres per 1000 people.

In conclusion, based on the given information, an area of approximately 6,415.70 acres per 1000 people would be needed for one year's worth of MSW in US landfills. However, it is important to note that this is a rough estimate and does not take into account factors such as compaction and waste composition, which can vary in different regions and affect the actual area needed.