What is land pollution?

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Land pollution is the deterioration (destruction) of the earth’s land surfaces, often directly or indirectly as a result of man’s activities and their misuse of land resources.

It occurs when waste is not disposed off properly, or can occur when humans throw chemicals unto the soil in the form of pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers during agricultural practices. Exploitation of minerals (mining activities) has also contributed to the destruction of the earth’s surface.

Since the Industrial Revolution, natural habitats have been destroyed, and environments have been polluted, causing diseases in both humans and many other species of animals.

Human actions have also caused many large areas of land to lose or reduce their capacity to support life forms and ecosystems. This is know as land degradation. Note that land degradation can result from many factors, and land pollution is only one of them.

In the lesson, we shall see the more about Land and Environmental Pollution, the sources of the pollution, its consequences and a few things we can do to prevent further pollution and protect our environment.

Types of land pollution.

There are different types of land pollution. Many publications group them differently. Let us see these four main types:

Solid Waste
These include all the various kinds of rubbish we make at home, school, hospitals, market and work places. Things like paper, plastic containers, bottles, cans, food and even used cars and broken electronic goods, broken furniture and hospital waste are all examples of solid waste. Some of these are biodegradable (meaning they easily rot or decay into organic matter). Examples include food droppings, paper products as well as vegetation (like grass and twigs). Others are not biodegradable, and they include plastics, metals and aluminum cans, broken computer and car parts.

Because these do not easily decay, they pile up in landfills (a place where all the city’s rubbish are sent), where they stay for thousands of years. These bring great harm to the land and people around it. See the complete lesson on WASTE here.

Pesticides and Fertilizers
Many farming activities engage in the application of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides for higher crop yield. This is good because we get more food, but can you think of what happens to the chemicals that end up on the crops and soils? Sometimes, insects and small animals are killed and bigger animals that eat tiny animals (as in food chains) are also harmed. Finally, the chemicals may be washed down as it rains and over time, they end up in the water table below (causes water pollution).

Chemicals
Chemical and nuclear power plants produce waste materials that have to be stored somewhere. Fertilizer, insecticides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals manufacturers also produce lots of solid and liquid waste. In many cases they are stored in an environmentally safe way, but there are some that find their way into landfills and other less safe storage facilities. Sometimes they also find their way into leaking pipes and gutters. They end up polluting soils and making crops harmful to our health.

Deforestation
Humans depend on trees for many things including life. Trees absorb carbon dioxide (a green house gas) from the air and enrich the air with Oxygen, which is needed for life. Trees provide wood for humans and a habitat to many land animals, insects and birds. Trees also, help replenish soils and help retain nutrients being washed away. Unfortunately, we have cut down millions of acres of tree for wood, construction, farming and mining purposes, and never planted new trees back. This is a type of land pollution.

Sources of land pollution.

Below are some sources of solid and semi-solid pollutants:

Agricultural sources:
These include waste matter produced by crop, animal manure, and farm residues. They also include the chemical left over of all pesticides, fertilisers and insecticides used for agricultural activities.

Ashes: The residual matter that remains after solid fuels are burned. When waste is burned in incinerators, two types of ashes are produced. Bottom ash is the debris from burnt metal and glass waste. Bottom ash are not bio-degradable. The second type of ash is called fly ash. This is the ash that is trapped by filters in the chimney of the incinerators. It is know to be very toxic (poisonous). Every four trucks of waste burnt produces about one truck of ashes that end up in the landfill too. Ashes easily leak into the soil and water tables causing land and water pollution.

Mining sources: This includes piles of coal refuse and heaps of slag and underground debris. Mining and forestry activities that clear the land surfaces (clearcutting) and use ‘skid trails’ often leave leave the land unrestored. The surface is exposed to erosion which destroys the quality of the land. Additionally, iron and other chemicals such as copper, mercury and lead from mining practices leach into the soil, polluting it and leaving it exposed to water bodies as well.

Industrial sources: These include paints, chemicals, metals and aluminum, plastics and so on that are produces in the process of manufacturing goods.

Sewage Treatment: Wastes that are left over after sewage has been treated, biomass sludge, and settled solids. Some of these are sent directly to landfills whiles other treatment plants burn them to generate electricity. Both end up polluting the environment.

Garbage or waste: These include household or municipal waste such as glass, metal, cloth, plastic, wood, paper, and so on. Some of these can decay and others cannot. They are usually collected and sent to landfills where the pollution action begins.

Construction sources: These include waste like debris, wood, metals and plastics that are produced from construction activities.

Deforestation: This is when trees are cut down for economic purposes, mining, farming and construction. In forests areas, trees absord and reflect about 20% of the intense heat from the sun, protecting and preserving its surface soils. Cutting down trees mean that the land is exposed to direct sunlight and rain, resulting in soil erosions, desertification and land degradation

Chemical And Nuclear Plants: These include chemical waste from chemical industries that are disposed off into landfills.

Oil Refineries: When crude oil is refined into usable petro, gas or diesel, there are by products that end up as waste.

Effects of land pollution.

There can be catastrophic consequences of land pollution in relation to humans, animals, water and soils. The effects are even worse if the garbage is not separated into organic, re-usable and recyclable waste.

Contaminated lands and environments can:
* Cause problems in the human respiratory system.
* Cause problems on the skin.
* Cause various kinds of cancers.

The toxic materials that pollute the soil can get into the human body directly by:
* Coming into contact with the skin.
* Being washed into water sources like reservoirs and rivers.
* Eating fruits and vegetables that have been grown in polluted soil.
* Breathing in polluted dust or particles.

Dump sites and landfills also come with serious problems like

* Very bad smell and odour in the town.
* Landfills breed rodents like rats, mice and insects, who in-turn transmit diseases.
* Landfills in towns do not attract tourists to the town. The town will loose revenue.
* Many landfills are always burning and they cause further

What is soil contamination?

Soil contamination, degradation and pollution mean different things even though we often use these terms to mean one thing. Here is the difference:

Soil pollution is when humans introduce harmful objects, chemicals or substances, directly or indirectly into the soil in a way that causes harm to other living things or destroys soil or water ecosystems.

Soil contamination is when the concentration of chemicals, nutrients or elements in the soil becomes more than it normally or naturally is, as a result of human action. If this contamination goes on to harm living organisms, we can call it pollution.

Soil degradation is when the soil looses its value (in terms of nutrients, chemical make-up etc) as a result of over-farming, over-grazing or erosion. For example, if a bush fire wipes out the vegetation on a piece of land therby exposing the soils, and nutrients in the soil gets dissolved by rain water run-off, the ability of the soil to support plant life is reduced. We can call this soil degradation.

What causes contamination?
Pesticides and herbicides (and other farming chemicals) often end up contamination soils. Direct discharge of wastewater by industries can also cause that. Leakages in sewage systems, underground storage tanks and leaching of soluble substances from landfills can also result in contamination. Rainwater or floods from other polluted lands and water bodies spread contaminants to soils in other locations.

The effects of soils contamination
Soil contamination can result in soil and land pollution, and affect the health of plants that depend on them. It can also harm living organisms in the soils and humans that come into contact with them by touching, breathing or eating crops from contaminated soils. Contaminants in soils can also get infiltrated into ground water and pollute them.

Depending on the extent and volume of soil contamination, it can be remedied by
1. Digging out the soils for treatment and disposal
2.Containing it to prevent it from spreading, by placing large plastic materials over the affected area.
3. Treating the soils with some safe chemicals to neutralize the contaminant.

How to prevent land pollution

Like many other challenges, the best best way to solve problems is to understand it. This means learning about it (like what you are doing now) is the greatest step forward.

Here are a few other tips on how you can help reduce land pollution:

People should be educated and made aware about the harmful effects of littering. Discuss with friends and family and talk about it.

Reuse any items that you can. Items like clothing, bottles, wrapping paper and shopping bags can be used over and over again, rather than buying new things.

The greatest prevention to land pollution is in the three ‘R’s’ … Reduce Waste, Re-use things and Recycle things. This is true even for governments. They can also use the three ‘R’ rule to minimize the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. After the three ‘R’s, remember to turn the rest of the garbge into compost.

Personal litter should be disposed properly. We can separate household waste at home for recycling. More than half of our household waste could be recycled or re-used but once it is mixed up, it becomes more difficult to separate different components for recycling. This is also true for waste we make at school or hospitals.

* Buy biodegradable products.

* Store all liquid chemicals and waste in spill-proof containers.

* Eat organic foods that are grown without pesticides. Look out for fertilizer or pesticide free products when you go to the market.

* Don’t use pesticides if you can.

* Use a drip tray to collect engine oil.

* Buy products that have little packaging.

* Don’t dump motor oil on the ground.

* Governments can also ensure that there are incentives for people to recycle and re-use things.

Some important facts on land pollution.

Here are a few facts about land pollution:

Facts on paper recycling

A spokesman from a Wiltshire (UK) said the county recycled more than 700 tonnes of plastic bottles and cardboard every month. BBC

Recycling a tonne of paper spares 17 trees, and Recycling half the worlds paper would free 20 million acres of forest land.

Recycling paper uses 70% less energy than to manufacture paper from virgin materials.

Every 10 tonnes of paper recycled is 10 tonnes less on its way to landfill.

The UK uses almost 13 million tonnes of paper and cardboard each year.

Paper and cardboard can decompose fairly easily, but the process gives off methane (a greenhouse gas), which contributes to climate change

Offices in the UK throw away around 1 million tonnes of paper each year. The bulk of it ends up in the landfill.

Facts on metal recycling

Recycling 1 aluminium can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours.

Once an aluminium can is recycled it is part of a new can within 6 weeks.

There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminium can can be recycled.

The energy it takes to make 1 new aluminium can is the same as it is to make 20 recycled cans.

Over 4 billion aluminium drinks cans were sold in 1998, if they had been collected for recycling they would have been worth £38 million.

Nearly 60% of the aluminium used in the U.K. has been previously recycled.

Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to produce them.

General facts

Every year one American produces over 3285 pounds of hazardous waste.

Land pollution causes us to lose 24 billion tonnes of top soil every year.

Americans generate 30 billion foam cups, 220 million tires and 1.8 billion disposable diapers every year.

We throw away enough trash every day to fill 63,000 garbage trucks.

Every day Americans throw away 1 million bushels of litter out their car window.