Jessica Snyder Sachs

About the author: Jessica Snyder Sachs is a contributor to Discover and other magazines and writes on health and family issues.

Modern urban areas generate immense amounts of municipal waste—much of it hazardous to human health. The latest trend in hazardous waste disposal is the landfill conversion, in which a city dump is landscaped and made over into a golf course or public park. New technologies allow landfill operators to compact and seal the underlying waste to prevent it from coming into contact with the air or water. At one such site, Live Oak on the outskirts of Atlanta, the landfill operator is considering using gas generated from the landfill to provide electricity. If done wrong, such projects can pose a direct threat to public health, but...