Landfills

In the 1940’s it was common for chemical companies to bury waste products in 55-gallon steel drums. These plant managers, for the most part were chemical engineers, who understood that in time these drums would rust and the materials would leak into the ground water. The most infamous of these sites was the Love Canal located near Niagara Falls but there 1,300 other sites which have cost over $50 billion dollars to date to cleaning up. Did the companies learn a lesson from this debacle? The answer is how are used solar panels being handled. Approximately 90% of old solar panels go to landfills. These contain heavy metals like silver, copper, arsenic and selenium along with cadmium all of which are classified as hazardous waste. While newer landfills are designed to prevent leakage all still leak to one extent or another. According to the Conservation Law Foundation, All Landfills Can Leak, and Our Health and Environment Pay the Toxic Price. Despite state and federal regulation, landfills leach harmful chemicals into the ground and water supply. While this is not a good situation, this is only about the disposal of old panels. A more dangerous problem arises from the mining and processing of these panels.