How FIVE BILLION Pounds of Las Vegas Garbage Powers a City | Overview

Most of the 600 billion pounds of waste that Americans produce every year ends up in landfills. All that trash can have huge impacts on the environment. But modern landfills have found a new use for all that trash — they’re turning it into energy. In spite of their reputation as “dumps,” these landfills are feats of engineering, more akin to construction sites.

One of North America’s biggest landfills lies on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The Apex Landfill is not only one of the country’s largest, it’s also one of the busiest. Because it serves a non-stop city, the landfill must operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It receives upwards of 16 million pounds of trash per day or 5 billion pounds per year.

Landfills like Apex are required to deal with the toxic chemicals they produce, like methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. At Apex, they capture that methane and turn it into energy that powers 11,000 homes in southern Nevada.

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Hosted by Joe Hanson from It's Okay to be Smart, Overview uses incredible 4k drone footage to reveal the natural phenomena shaping our planet from a 10,000-foot view—literally.

[briangarrow]

I was a certified solid waste landfill operator for my former employer. The public has very little interest in what happens to their waste, as long as it gets picked up every week and they don’t have to deal with it. I wish every school kid would be able to tour a waste facility and see how much work is done at these areas.

[juliansenfr]

Watching this more than anything just makes me immensely grateful for the people working in the waste management industry, these unsung heroes from garbage collectors to landfill handlers to sorting staffs at recycling plants and more literally put their long term health at risk, not to mention the long hours facing mountains of trash and undeservedly low wages for a living just so we could all have functioning societies to live in.

If anyone from the industry sees this by any chance thank you for what you do, stay safe and take pride in what you do, because y'all are just as important as the firefighters & the nurses. Big up and much love.

[zakleclaire]

I worked on a recycling center (albeit a smaller center) and we go SO MUCH cardboard it was stupid. I don't want to get into the gross stuff we got on the line but I will say that humans have inherent limitations. We could only sort so much so fast and there was always some that got through.

[derek-]

Don't just recycle. Reduce and reuse first. Cut down on waste and see if we can repurpose things. Recycling should be the last thing. So let's try and cut down on waste so there's less of it even if it's just a little bit.

[leelindsay]

I shred most of my cardboard and mulch it into my lawn, around trees, and improve my clay soils so they soak up more water during rains.

[dsm]

when I lived in Vegas in the 90's I had a couch to toss, they sent me up to this landfill which at the time was a hole in the ground surrounded by small mountains. it was about 1000' across and easily 200' deep. I was amazed by it. if this is the same place (surrounding area looks similar) they will be capping it soon and moving into the mining area. I thought it would take forever to fill it

[DrewDubious]

it's really horrific to see the amount of waste we create.

[jamesalderman]

Do a documentary on plasma arc power plants which turn trash into electricity and the leftover ash into paving stones. If this technology is what it's cracked up to be, landfills as we know them could go away, and even existing landfills could be "mined" for their valuable trash to be used as fuel.

[AvalonDreamz]

I would say this is not only those who "throw stuff away" problem. It's time to point the finger at the massive corporations that use the nonrecyclable resources for their products to begin with! That is where the problem begins, not just with the people who use the product. The people have been blamed long enough. Time for those who make the product to do their part, the part that was always THEIRS to begin with.

[stevehammerich]

Who thinks some day in future we will be digging up landfill, trying to get any resources out of them .

[avauinc]

Thank you Apex and Las Vegas for your service, appreciate you.

[tedarin]

In the city in Finland where I live less than 1% of all the waste goes to the landfill.
That which can be recycled (metal, cardboard, wood, glas, paper, plastics, concrete, electronic and biowaste) is taken out and non-recyclable material goes to incineration.

The Waste-to-Energy plant outputs electricity and heat (the heat is led via heatpipes to the city homes/buildnings).

The biowaste is treated in an aneorobic digestion plant. Where methane is produced, the methane is upgraded to biogas that the local buses/trucks/cars use as fuel.
And after the biowaste comes out of the reactor it is composted for a few years and later used as fertilizer/soil for gardens/farmers.

Las Vegas homes have two bins, garbage and recyclables. Several times a month you can put out large items such as furniture, refrigerators, old electronics, etc. and they get picked up. And Apex is where deceased pets, not buried in pet cemeteries, are taken for cremation and a decent burial away from the garbage. Plus all streets are swept once a week, usually the day after garbage pickup. Ours is Tuesday pickup, Wednesday the sweeper comes by.

[patricktaylor]

And this is why as a country boy in the USA we burn our trash ever week, Then we mix the ash with water and filter the large bits out and mix this ash mix with cow manure to make Barnyard Tea. It's the best fertilizer you can get.

[bobpettit]

Thanks for sharing this Very informative video. Thank you all for doing the great work that you do and keeping our community safe.

[Wonderhussy]

Nice to see something positive about Vegas! I found this totally fascinating.... I would love to tour that facility sometime

[lonestarr]

Came from Eons. Not because I'm not subscribed already, but because, apparently, they've been faster in suggesting than YouTube.

[ooooneeee]

It's bewildering you guys don't collect paper and cardboard separately but with all the other waste that degrades its quality with liquids, rotting and other contamination. Here in Europe we have separate bins for it and in many countries are able to recycle more than 95% of it.

[GoingtoHecq]

Saying it's "per person" really implies that individuals, and not industry, is generating that waste. I don't think anyone poops that much. I can see the food waste. But no way I consume that much weight of packaging.

[GamerPro]

Fun fact about landfills, It's impossible to show footage of landfills without playing seagull squawks over it.