In case you had not already heard, the state of Florida has a somewhat strange occurrence taking place. An area landfill is sinking into the Earth and, as a result, toxins are projected to leak into the area water supply. This is only one instance of how our overflowing landfills are racking up the points against us while we continue to use up and discard, rather then embrace more completely the concept of recycling and reusing. We’ll take a glimpse at the situation in Florida and then discuss just how it illustrates the potential for landfills worldwide to wind up being real nightmares of an ecological sort.

According to a recent commentary from WUSF http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2010/12/16/sinkhole_under_landfill_is_growing), the radio station of the University of South Florida, it seems that a sinkhole is opening underneath a landfill which serves Hillsborough County roughly 20 miles away from Tampa, Florida. Even as the powers that be still try to figure out what to do concerning this predicament, it looks like a catastrophic one, to say the least. Official measurements reveal the sinkhole is as deep as a 4 story building is tall. Literally loads of trash from Tampa Bay area households has already fallen into the hole.

What’s a major cause for alarm is the undeniable fact that leachate could very well start to leak downward into the area water supplies. Leachate can be described as substance that is a fluid containing unwanted chemical elements, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leachate). This type of contaminated fluid seeping into the region’s wells is definitely bad news for the drinking water in this part of the Tampa area, but it’s also a possible sign of a larger scale problem.

Tampa, Florida is in no way the only soft soil area in the world where all the tons of human compiled garbage may possibly fall through the ground and directly into the water supply. Although solid waste is usually thought of as easier to deal with than some other kinds of human made pollution, as soon as it starts to break down into leachate, the situation changes. Objects such as detergent containers as well as typical plastic shopping bags contain petroleum based chemical substances we donít want in our drinking water.

Even as it is definitely difficult to singlehandedly take on the impact of a whole landfill, these waste disposal areas are all comprised of garbage from countless individuals. That means each of us plays a role in how swiftly they are filled. Such alternatives as using eco friendly bio bags as an alternative to mainstream plastic bags could seem insignificant, nevertheless when you think about how things add up, it carries a huge impact. Once we choose to recycle by utilizing eco friendly shopping bags sometimes called go green bags rather than opting for traditional bags, we are putting a foot forward for a cleaner world.

So while a sinkhole may well not open in the Earth beneath a landfill next to you any time soon, rest assured that if we take no action comparable events are likely to continue happening worldwide. Because of this, it isn’t just Florida confronting this dilemma – all of us play a role in making daily decisions that impact the earth.