vertedero
nounCEFR B1
What does “vertedero” mean in English?
landfill / rubbish dump
landfill / rubbish dump (site where solid waste is deposited and buried — acabar en el vertedero, vertedero controlado)
Example sentences
Si no reciclamos más, los vertederos se llenarán en pocas décadas y no habrá dónde depositar tanta basura acumulada.
If we do not recycle more, landfills will fill up in a few decades and there will be nowhere to deposit so much accumulated waste.
Una gran parte de los residuos plásticos que creemos que se reciclan acaban en realidad en vertederos de otros países.
A large proportion of the plastic waste we think is being recycled actually ends up in landfills in other countries.
La ley obliga a las empresas a reducir los residuos que envían al vertedero y a aumentar las tasas de reciclaje.
The law requires companies to reduce the waste they send to landfill and to increase recycling rates.
How to use it
El vertedero means 'landfill' or 'rubbish dump' — the site where solid waste is deposited and buried. It is masculine (el vertedero). The word comes from verter (to spill, pour). Key collocates: el vertedero está lleno, acabar en el vertedero, los vertederos ilegales, vertedero controlado. In environmental discourse, el vertedero represents the worst-case destination for waste that has not been recycled or composted.
Common mistake
El vertedero is specifically an official or large-scale waste disposal site. The everyday household bin is el cubo de basura or el contenedor. An illegal dump is el vertedero ilegal or el basurero ilegal. In some Latin American countries el basurero is more common for the dump, while el vertedero is used in Peninsular Spanish and formal registers across the Spanish-speaking world.