landfill
LAND-fil
/ˈlændfɪl/
A place to dispose of refuse and other waste material by burying it and covering it over with soil.
A modern, engineered site designed to minimize environmental impact, unlike an open, unregulated 'dump'.
The story behind the word. The term 'landfill' emerged in the 1940s as a technical term for a new method of waste disposal. Instead of leaving trash in open, smelly dumps, cities began systematically 'filling' low-lying 'land' with waste and covering it daily with soil.
Word relationships
- dump: A dump is an unregulated, open area where waste is left, whereas a landfill is a highly engineered, regulated containment facility.
Commonly confused with
- junkyard: A junkyard is a place where scrap metal, old cars, and machinery are kept to be salvaged or sold, while a landfill is for burying non-recyclable waste.
Word family
- landfilling (noun): The process of disposing of waste in a landfill.
Collocations
- landfill site
- municipal landfill
- landfill liner
- send to the landfill
Example sentences
- "Modern environmental regulations require every landfill to have a protective liner to prevent soil pollution." An environmental impact statement.
- "By recycling more, we can reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the local landfill." A discussion on reducing waste.
Memory hook
It is literally 'land' that is 'filled' with trash and covered up. Landfill: Filling the land with waste.
When not to use
Do not use 'landfill' to describe a simple pile of trash in a backyard; that is a 'dump' or 'trash pile'.
Fun facts
- Freshwater and oxygen are so scarce inside a compacted landfill that newspapers buried in the 1950s have been dug up decades later still perfectly readable.
Related words
Explore more words
brownfield, deposit, excavate, closed-loop, remediation, blight
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