About 54% by weight of the MSW in the United States
is buried in sanitary landfills, compared to 80% in Canada,
15% in Japan, and 12% in Switzerland.
There are two types of landfills. Open dumps are
essentially fields or holes in the ground where garbage
is deposited and sometimes burned. They are rare in
developed countries, but are widely used near major
cities in many developing countries (Figure 1-6, p. 11)
In newer landfills, called sanitary landfills (Figure
21-15, p. 576), solid wastes are spread out in thin