Place:Thilafushi, Maldives

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Thilafushi is an artificial island created by government decision in 1991^[1] as a municipal landfill situated to the west of Malé, and is located between Kaafu Atoll's Giraavaru and Gulhifalhu of the Maldives.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Thilafushi originally was a lagoon called "Thilafalhu" with a length of 7 km and a width of 200 metres at the shallowest regions. It came into existence following a series of discussions and efforts to resolve Malé's garbage predicament during the early 1990s. The decision to reclaim Thilafalhu as a landfill was made on 5 December 1991.

Thilafushi received its first load of garbage from Malé on 7 January 1992. Operations started with just 1 landing craft, 4 heavyload trucks, 2 excavators and a single wheel loader.

During its early years of waste disposal operations, pits (also known as cells) with a volume of 37,500 ft³ (1060 m³) were dug, after which the sand obtained from the excavation was used to construct walled enclosures around the internal perimeter of the cells. Waste received from Malé was deposited into the midst of the pit, which was topped off with a layer of construction debris and then uniformly levelled with white sand. Initially there was no segregation of the waste since it had to be disposed immediately due to mass accumulation.

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