Decades’ worth of toxic “forever chemicals” are sitting in landfills, presenting a new contaminant for waste handlers who didn’t create the pollution, but now find themselves awash in it. A few companies are trying to filter PFAS out of their leachate, and researchers are studying whether it might escape from trash into the air.
The white trailer blends into the winter landscape at SKB Environmental’s landfill in Rosemount, Minnesota, but inside, machinery is working to capture one of the most pervasive environmental pollutants of our time.
The landfill is the final stop for industrial waste, incinerator ash and demolition garbage, where all of that material is mixed into massive, lined cells. Like in every landfill, moisture in the trash that’s trucked in mixes with rainfall and collects into a polluted soup known as leachate.
SKB is experimenting with filtering PFAS chemicals out of that liquid. The leachate is pumped inside the trailer, where it travels through several tanks that repeatedly froth it up. These chemicals bubble into a super-concentrated foam – much like soap would. Then that foam is siphoned off, and the cleaned water continues on to a sewage plant.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are thousands of chemicals used to make frying pans nonstick and clothes and carpets stain-resistant, and even to snuff out dangerous fires...
...moreThe landfill is the final stop for industrial waste, incinerator ash and demolition garbage, where all of that material is mixed into massive, lined cells. Like in every landfill, moisture in the trash that’s trucked in mixes with rainfall and collects into a polluted soup known as leachate.
SKB is experimenting with filtering PFAS chemicals out of that liquid. The leachate is pumped inside the trailer, where it travels through several tanks that repeatedly froth it up. These chemicals bubble into a super-concentrated foam – much like soap would. Then that foam is siphoned off, and the cleaned water continues on to a sewage plant.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are thousands of chemicals used to make frying pans nonstick and clothes and carpets stain-resistant, and even to snuff out dangerous fires...
Share this article on you social outlets
Our Sponsors
- - Volume: 24 - WEEK: 12 Date: 3/18/2024 2:02:02 PM -