Engineering of new refuse sites is pretty well understood and sophisticated these days, at least in most advanced economies. The bottom of the site is sealed with a multi-layer impermeable barrier, and any effluent 'liquor' flows down to a drain where it is tapped off for processing. Methane and other gaseous build-ups are vented through pipes at the top of the site.
Subsidence due to settlement of refuse over time is dealt with by well-known construction techniques for less-stable ground, such as deep piling. In some cases though it's simply more sensible to repurpose the land for amenity use, where subsidence is less of a concern than it would be for a residential area.
Yeah, we could just dredge sand from poisoned seabeds around oil platforms with insufficient pollution controls.
Building on garbage dumps might not be the worst strategy, if it can be made safe? Garbage has to be dumped somewhere anyway?
Engineering of new refuse sites is pretty well understood and sophisticated these days, at least in most advanced economies. The bottom of the site is sealed with a multi-layer impermeable barrier, and any effluent 'liquor' flows down to a drain where it is tapped off for processing. Methane and other gaseous build-ups are vented through pipes at the top of the site.
Subsidence due to settlement of refuse over time is dealt with by well-known construction techniques for less-stable ground, such as deep piling. In some cases though it's simply more sensible to repurpose the land for amenity use, where subsidence is less of a concern than it would be for a residential area.