The way modern cities handle waste and wastewater really showcases both our creativity and our disregard for the environment. Take ‘sanitary’ landfills, for instance—they’re a step up from open dumps, but they still have significant flaws. While they do a better job of containing waste and preventing immediate contamination, they also contribute to long-term pollution through methane emissions and leachate seepage. So, is the term ‘sanitary’ – which is often associated with them- appropriate, when we know that some of them have a negative ecological impact in the long run?
Moreover, wastewater management is crucial for urban living, but it also highlights the inequalities in our infrastructure. It is common to see advanced sewage systems in wealthier neighborhoods, while poorer communities are stuck with outdated systems that leak pollutants into nearby waterways.
The way we manage wastewater highlights the broader social and economic disparities that exist within our cities. Cities that are hubs of consumption and waste generation, often put convenience ahead of sustainability. Urban planning rarely incorporates waste management in a way that makes people aware of the impact of their waste. Instead, waste is often hidden away—transported to far-off landfills, reinforcing a “flush and forget” mindset. A ‘real’ sustainable city would rethink these systems, and would probably focus more on cutting down on waste production and exploring innovative waste-to-energy solutions. Over the years, many cities have tried to become more sustainable, such as Copenhagen (Denmark), and San Francisco (California).
Finally, I believe that if cities want to be genuinely sustainable, they need to go beyond just containing waste and work towards systems that minimize waste at its source while ensuring fairness in infrastructure development for everyone.
It is really interesting that people often view modern landfills as sanitary because it is quite ironic as you mentioned. When reading about that it also made me think of our discussion on greenwashing and how companies often mask their practices with certain terminology to make regular people assume things are getting better and that there is nothing to worry about.