ripe landfill

[01101]

Does "ripe" mean "old" in this context?

We’re obsessed with finding fossils and notorious for going to great (and sometimes stupid) lengths to discover new ones. It could be a limestone pit in Poland or maybe a bluff behind a Walmart, a dump pile of boulders at a construction site, or the rocky walls of a ripe landfill.

Source: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte.

 

[LVRBC]

I believe that a ripe landfill in this context means a landfill that smells bad.

 

[kentix]

A landfill in this context is a place where household waste is put after it is collected (usually by the city). Part of it is rotting food and other things that stink.