SFrom Lyme Regis to Charmouth, East Cliff Beach is a popular spot for fossil hunters who search the shore for spiral-shaped ammonites and the glints of fools’ gold. More rocks containing fossils from the prehistoric era are being exposed along Dorsets Jurassic Coast as the 50-metre high cliff falls into the ocean.
You will find more sinister deposits along the cliff edge if you look closely. The beach is littered with concrete, metal, and plastic. Every storm and tide brings smaller amounts of waste and toxic chemicals to the sea.
This cliff marks the boundary of an Spittles Lane was an old landfill site. It was used as a tip from 1978 to 1978. It contains various metals, including asbestos, lead, and plastics, as well chemical contaminants. It is susceptible to landslides.
In 2008, a 400-metre-long section of cliff collapsed, releasing waste onto beaches below. Southampton University scientists predict that the rest of the landfill will be cleared. Collapse into the ocean, erodedWithin the next century. They estimate that as many as 6,000 cubic metres worth of waste has been eliminated already, and that Spittles Lane contains up to 42,000 cubic meters more.
This landfill is located within a Unesco World Heritage Site. It operates under a policy that no active intervention is required. Any potential chemical pollution is considered relatively diluted, so there is no investment in erosion prevention.
The council removes large amounts of solid waste, including asbestos from the beach at regular intervals but leaves smaller items and toxic chemicals to be washed away.
Kate Spencer, professor of environment geochemistry at Queen Mary University of London, says that choosing coastal locations for landfills has been a conscious management decision in the past. She estimates that there are more than 1,200 landfills on the coast in England, out of 20,000.
Older sites weren’t designed to remove pollution from the environment. They were created to allow any toxic chemicals or sewage to dissolve and disperse. This is how we have abused our seas and estuaries for centuries.
Spencer, who has spent 10 years studying coastal landfills, said that they are at risk of flooding and erosion if we don’t protect them.
This is not a problem that is limited to England. These landfills pose a problem worldwide on a geological timeline. Now that there is likely to be significant coastal change or floods this stuff will be more likely to get released, says Robert Nicholls of Southampton University’s coastal engineering department.
It is estimated that there are approximately 500,000 people living in Europe. 350,000 to 500,000 landfills 90% of these landfills predate modern waste control legislation that requires landfills to be lined or capped. Many of these older landfills can be found in coastal areas or floodplains.
More than 800 people reside in the US. Superfund sites along the coastThe climate crisis will increase sea levels and flood the areas that store toxic waste, including municipal landfills. Landfills in developing nations like India and Bangladesh are often found on low-lying flood plains.
Large-scale waste release is already being caused by catastrophic climate events. The US is home to the following: 13 toxic waste locations in Texas2017 Hurricane Harvey caused flooding. The failure to Historic Fox River landfillNew Zealand during a 2019 storm polluted About 60 miles (100km).Coast.
Spencer says that adaptation must be a priority along our coastline as sea-level rise is inevitable and coastal erosion is inevitable.
Let nature take its course, as the coastline erodes and the landfills fall into the sea. This could be dangerous for marine life and human health, depending on the site’s location.
Another option is to build coastal defenses to protect the landfill from erosion and stabilize the slopes. However, this is expensive and difficult to do if the coastline is in conservation status. However, costs will likely be prohibitive for coastal landfills that could be excavated and moved inland to a safer facility.
Another option is to perform on-site processing. However, it is important to know more about the hazards of certain materials and components. Spencer and Nicholls believe landfills can be used as a resource to extract valuable precious metals such as iron and lithium, as well as plastics that could potentially be reused or recycled.
Spencer believes that landfill mining could raise enough money to effectively deal with remaining contaminants. But, there is some debate over whether the economics can ever be justified.
Nicholls said that it is impossible to clean up every site. He says that the best way for coastal landfills to be managed globally is to create an evidence-based system to rank them based on their level of risk.
Although a lot of material that is found in landfills may not be very harmful once it is in the ocean, some can. He states that there is no way to make a rational decision. Instead, we must tackle the worst material first.
Spencer says that identifying the chemicals in landfills will help you understand the potential damage they cause and who is responsible. It is difficult to identify the source of pollution, especially when there are multiple sources. However, until that happens, no one will be able to take responsibility or pay for it.
Nicholls hopes that the development of tools to better assess coastal landfills in the UK can have far-reaching effects. Because this issue is universal, we could help solve our own problems and then export what knowledge we have to help solve the world’s.