Here is why that comparison completely fails:
1. The Singapore Reality (Ash, Not Trash) 🇸🇬
Singapore does not dump raw, unrecyclable waste into the ground. They run a massive Waste-to-Energy (WtE) program where waste is incinerated at 1,000°C. They only dump the inert, burnt ash offshore at Semakau Island. Because all the organic matter is burned away, there is zero methane production, zero rotting, and no toxic leachate. Trichy’s waste is raw, decomposing, and highly active.
2. Engineered Landfills vs. Rock Quarries 🇦🇺
When countries like Australia use landfills, they build Sanitary Engineered Landfills. These are lined with thick High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) membranes, clay barriers, and active leachate pumping systems so the toxins never touch the groundwater. The TVK MLA suggested dumping waste into an unlined, fractured stone quarry, which guarantees the leachate will flow directly into Thuvakudi’s aquifers.
3. The "Housing Project" Myth 🏗️
You cannot build housing projects directly on top of 700,000 tonnes of raw, decomposing garbage. As organic waste rots, it loses volume, causing the ground above it to sink and shift unpredictably (subsidence). This destroys building foundations. Worldwide, reclaimed dump yards are turned into public parks, golf courses, or solar farms—rarely heavy residential housing—because of the structural instability and methane off-gassing.
My Take:
What developed nations do is highly regulated, scientifically contained waste processing. Dumping raw garbage into a 1,700-foot rock pit is not "developed nation infrastructure" it is a 19th-century sanitary disaster. The Biomining operation is the only correct path forward.
Many developed countries like Australia, Malaysia and Singapore they dump unrecyclable waste on ground and built housing project on top of it.