Recently, it has been suggested that the organic sludge that is found at the bottom of landfills would be best used as a fertilizer for bio-fuel crops such as corn (aka maize), soybeans and canola. There are several reasons why this would not be a very good idea, despite the desire to do something with the organic wastes that would otherwise slowly decompose and produce copious amounts of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
For starters, organic waste isn’t the only thing contained in landfill sludge. There are potentially toxic levels of heavy metals and the breakdown byproducts of thousands of man-made chemicals. Many of these substances are very potent toxins that bio-accumulate in living organisms, growing more powerful as they move up the food chain. Others are completely untested and have the potential to case all manner of problems once they leach into the larger surface water supply.
Moreover, such land would be rendered useless for human or animal crop production for an unspecified many years unless bio-remediated.
