LANDFILL NOUN (ENVIRONMENT)

In full landfill site: a place where rubbish is disposed of by burying it under layers of earth. Etymology: Formed by abbreviating landfill site; the term landfill had been in use since the forties in the US for this method of disposing of rubbish, and since the sixties for the rubbish buried in this way. History and Usage: Landfill has been used as a method of waste disposal in developed countries for several decades; landfill site was first abbreviated to landfill during the seventies. In the mid eighties, the subject of landfills came into the news in connection with growing concern for the environment, especially when it was revealed that hazardous wastes had been buried in them, and that the land had in some cases been re-used for residential sites: see dumping. Manila's huge landfill at Tondo receives garbage from nearly two million people every day. Listener 12 July 1984, p. 16 Truck carrying 1,800 gallons of waste oil believed to contain cancer-causing PCBs was held at landfill pending tests. USA Today 18 Oct. 1985, section A, p. 5