A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organised waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world. Landfills may include internal waste disposal sites as well as sites used by many producers. Many landfills are also used for other waste management purposes, such as the temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or processing of waste material (sorting, treatment, or recycling). A landfill also may refer to ground that has been filled in with soil and rocks instead of waste materials, so that it can be used for a specific purpose, such as for building houses. Unless they are stabilised, these areas may experience severe shaking or liquefaction of the ground in a large earthquake. This book presents new research in a field which is demanding and beginning to receive society's attention.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal is an ever-increasing problem in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. To date, landfilling is still the preferred option for the disposal and management of MSW due to its low-cost operation. While this solution is advantageous from a cost perspective, it introduces a high level of potential pollutants which can be detrimental to the local environment. Control and Treatment of Landfill Leachate for Sanitary Waste Disposal presents research-based insights and solutions for the proper management and treatment of landfill leachate. Highlighting relevant topics on emerging technologies and treatment innovations for minimizing the environmental hazards of waste disposal, this innovative publication contributes to filling in many of the gaps that exist in the current literature available on leachate treatment. Waste authorities, solid waste management companies, landfill operators, legislators, environmentalists, graduate students, and researchers will find this publication beneficial to their professional and academic interests in the area of waste treatment and management.
Using biotechnology to help control landfill processes can mitigate costs, shorten the time needed to process solid waste, and ease the typical ecological damage to the land being used. This first-of-its-kind book provides regulators, designers, landfill owners, and operators with information that supports the utility of landfill bioreactors and provides design and operating criteria essential for the successful application of this technology. It pulls together laboratory, pilot, and full-scale experiences into one concise guide to designing and running municipal landfills as bioreactors. Landfill Bioreactor Design and Operation covers the history and background of landfill technology, research studies of actual bioreactor landfills, expected leachate and gas yields, specific design criteria, operation guidelines, and reuse of landfill sites to avoid having to establish new sites. For anyone looking for an alternative to large, wasteful landfill sites, this book provides a practical alternative to the problem.
Solid waste management is a global concern, and landfilling remains the predominant management method in most areas of the world. This book provides a comprehensive view of state-of-the-art methods to manage landfills more sustainably, drawing upon more than two decades of research, design, and operational experiences at operating sites across the world. Sustainable landfills implement one or multiple technologies to control and enhance the degradation of waste materials to realize a multitude of potential benefits during or shortly after the landfill’s operating phase. This book presents detailed approaches in the development, design, operation, and monitoring of sustainable landfills. Case studies showcasing the benefits and challenges of sustainable landfill technologies are also provided to give the reader additional context. The intent of the book is to serve as a reference guide for regulatory personnel, a practical tool for designers and engineers to build on for site-specific applications of sustainable landfill technologies, and a comprehensive resource for researchers who are continuing to explore new and better ways to more sustainably manage waste materials.
Solid Waste Landfilling: Concepts, Processes, Technology provides information on technologies that promote stabilization and minimize environmental impacts in landfills. As the main challenges in waste management are the reduction and proper treatment of waste and the appropriate use of waste streams, the book satisfies the needs of a modern landfill, covering waste pre-treatment, in situ treatment, long-term behavior, closure, aftercare, environmental impact and sustainability. It is written for practitioners who need specific information on landfill construction and operation, but is also ideal for those concerned about the possible return of these sites to landscapes and their subsequent uses for future generations. - Includes input by international contributors from a vast number of disciplines - Provides worldwide approaches and technologies - Showcases the interdisciplinary nature of the topic - Focuses on sustainability, covering the lifecycle of landfills under the concept of minimizing environmental impact - Presents knowledge of the legal framework and economic aspects of landfilling
Solid waste management affects every person in the world. By 2050, the world is expected to increase waste generation by 70 percent, from 2.01 billion tonnes of waste in 2016 to 3.40 billion tonnes of waste annually. Individuals and governments make decisions about consumption and waste management that affect the daily health, productivity, and cleanliness of communities. Poorly managed waste is contaminating the world’s oceans, clogging drains and causing flooding, transmitting diseases, increasing respiratory problems, harming animals that consume waste unknowingly, and affecting economic development. Unmanaged and improperly managed waste from decades of economic growth requires urgent action at all levels of society. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 aggregates extensive solid aste data at the national and urban levels. It estimates and projects waste generation to 2030 and 2050. Beyond the core data metrics from waste generation to disposal, the report provides information on waste management costs, revenues, and tariffs; special wastes; regulations; public communication; administrative and operational models; and the informal sector. Solid waste management accounts for approximately 20 percent of municipal budgets in low-income countries and 10 percent of municipal budgets in middle-income countries, on average. Waste management is often under the jurisdiction of local authorities facing competing priorities and limited resources and capacities in planning, contract management, and operational monitoring. These factors make sustainable waste management a complicated proposition; most low- and middle-income countries, and their respective cities, are struggling to address these challenges. Waste management data are critical to creating policy and planning for local contexts. Understanding how much waste is generated—especially with rapid urbanization and population growth—as well as the types of waste generated helps local governments to select appropriate management methods and plan for future demand. It allows governments to design a system with a suitable number of vehicles, establish efficient routes, set targets for diversion of waste, track progress, and adapt as consumption patterns change. With accurate data, governments can realistically allocate resources, assess relevant technologies, and consider strategic partners for service provision, such as the private sector or nongovernmental organizations. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 provides the most up-to-date information available to empower citizens and governments around the world to effectively address the pressing global crisis of waste. Additional information is available at http://www.worldbank.org/what-a-waste.
An argument that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things. Discard studies is an emerging field that looks at waste and wasting broadly construed. Rather than focusing on waste and trash as the primary objects of study, discard studies looks at wider systems of waste and wasting to explore how some materials, practices, regions, and people are valued or devalued, becoming dominant or disposable. In this book, Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky argue that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things. They show how the theories and methods of discard studies can be applied in a variety of cases, many of which do not involve waste, trash, or pollution. Liboiron and Lepawsky consider the partiality of knowledge and offer a theory of scale, exploring the myth that most waste is municipal solid waste produced by consumers; discuss peripheries, centers, and power, using content moderation as an example of how dominant systems find ways to discard; and use theories of difference to show that universalism, stereotypes, and inclusion all have politics of discard and even purification—as exemplified in “inclusive” efforts to broaden the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, they develop a theory of change by considering “wasting well,” outlining techniques, methods, and propositions for a justice-oriented discard studies that keeps power in view.
The overall aim of the thesis is to examine the institutional conditions for the implementation and emergence of landfill mining. The result shows that current policy makes it difficult for landfill mining operators to find a market outlet for the exhumed material, which means that landfill mining may result in a waste disposal problem. Regulations also restrict accessibility to the material in landfills. Therefore, it has generally been municipal landfill owners that perform landfill mining operations, which directs learning processes towards solving landfill problems rather than resource recovery. Landfill mining is not, however, necessarily to be perceived as a recycling activity. It could also be understood as a remediation or mining activity. This would result in more favorable institutional conditions for landfill mining in terms of better access to the market and the material in the landfill. The regulatory framework surrounding landfills is based on a perception of landfills as a source of pollution, a problem that should be avoided, capped and closed. Extracting resources from landfills, challenges this perception and therefore results in a mismatch with the regulatory framework. On the other hand, the material in mines is typically regarded in the formal institutions as a positive occurrence. Mining activities are regarded as the backbone of the Swedish economy and therefore receive various forms of political support. This favorable regulatory framework is not available for secondary resource production. Based on the identified institutional conditions, institutional challenges are identified. The core of these challenges is a conflict between the policy goal of increased recycling and a non-toxic environment. Secondary resources are typically punished through strict requirements for marketability, while primary resources are supported through subsidies such as tax exemptions. The authorities lack capacity to manage the emergence of unconventional and complex activities such as landfill mining. The institutional arrangements that are responsible for landfills primarily perceive them as pollution, while the institutions responsible for resources, on the other hand, assume them to be found in the bedrock. The major contribution of the thesis is to go beyond the potential-oriented studies of landfill mining to instead focus on how institutions relate to landfill mining. In order to move towards a resource transition with dominant use of secondary resources a new institutional order is proposed.
Focuses on actual, state-of-the-art design/construction procedures as opposed to a discussion of solid waste management issues and to general descriptions and/or conceptual designs. Provides an integrated package of analytical tools, design equations, and step-by-step construction procedures for all elements of a landfill, giving the reader a better sense of the necessary site investigation, planning, analysis, and organization that go into a landfill design and construction project.The characteristics of landfill containment envelopes and their design/construction are treated in detail. Physico-chemical and engineering properties of solid waste that are relevant and important to landfill design and construction are tabulated and described. Includes explanation of how to evaluate and assess potential problems that affect landfill performance such as sideslope stability, settlement, containment effectiveness, and erosion control. Discusses vertical landfill expansion; how leachate moves across a liner or barrier under both advection and diffusion; compares the containment effectiveness of different liner systems to the combined advective-diffusive transport of dissolved leachate solutes. Includes a detailed explanation with numerical examples and calculations of how to design a gas collection and piping system in a landfill—including the collection and handling of condensate in the gas. Detailed installation and inspection guidelines are provided for both earthen and geosynthetic liner/cover systems—comparing the relative advantages and limitations of each. For professional training courses in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.
This book was originally published in 1990 and was the first text to consider the definitive fundamental science of landfill biotechnology. Since then, major research initiatives, particularly in the U.K. and South Africa, have resulted in considerable advancement in our knowledge of landfill microbiology. The Second Edition details this progress. Text considers the latest findings in landfill leachate treatment, co-disposal and fundamental microbiology. It brings together the expertise of the immediate complementary, but often disparate disciplines of soil science, environmental engineering, applied mathematics, and land reclamation and focuses on the common goal of the scientific design and management of landfill sites. The book also includes effective laboratory models and selected approaches.
