Abstract
The early stages of municipal solid waste degradation in landfills are complex harmonies of physical, biological, and chemical interactions that all work in concert to degrade trash into smaller and more stable materials. While many approaches have been taken to understand parts of this process, this new work attempted to simulate the early stages of landfills in controlled laboratory environments while observing the impacts of food waste content at different concentrations. This was completed by operating landfill lysimeters in a laboratory for approximately 1000 days, simulating landfill interior conditions while measuring the gas and liquid byproducts to study the impact of food waste presence in these environments. Metagenomic analysis after the experiment identified over 18,000 individual species and allowed comparison with past studies while also surveying microorganisms present in landfills. Similar populations found in past studies suggested the current experiments successfully replicated landfill conditions. While food waste diversion had a discernable impact on gas production, it did not show a clear and consistent impact on the microbiomes identified in this study.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Bareither CA, Wolfe GL, McMahon KD, Benson CH (2013) Microbial diversity and dynamics during methane production from municipal solid waste. Waste Manag 33(10):1982–1992
Barlaz MA, Chanton JP, Green RB (2009) Controls on landfill gas collection efficiency: instantaneous and lifetime performance. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 59(12):1399–1404
Calli B, Durmaz S, Mertoglu B (2006) Identification of prevalent microbial communities in a municipal solid waste landfill. Water Sci Technol 53(8):139–147
Campanaro S, Treu L, Rodriguez-R LM, Kovalovszki A, Ziels RM, Maus I, Angelidaki I (2020) New insights from the biogas microbiome by comprehensive genome-resolved metagenomics of nearly 1600 species originating from multiple anaerobic digesters. Biotechnol Biofuels 13(1):25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-020-01679-y
Chickering GW, Krause MJ, Townsend TG (2018) Determination of as-discarded methane potential in residential and commercial municipal solid waste. Waste Manag 76:82–89
Fisgativa H, Tremier A, Le Roux S, Bureau C, Dabert P (2017) Understanding the anaerobic biodegradability of food waste: relationship between the typological, biochemical and microbial characteristics. J Environ Manage 188:95–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.11.058
Ghosh P, Kumar M, Kapoor R, Kumar SS, Singh L, Vijay V, Thakur IS (2020) Enhanced biogas production from municipal solid waste via co-digestion with sewage sludge and metabolic pathway analysis. Bioresour Technol 296:122275
Köchling T, Sanz JL, Gavazza S, Florencio L (2015) Analysis of microbial community structure and composition in leachates from a young landfill by 454 pyrosequencing. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99(13):5657–5668
Schupp S, De la Cruz FB, Cheng Q, Call DF, Barlaz MA (2020) Evaluation of the temperature range for Biological Activity in Landfills experiencing elevated temperatures. ACS ES&T Engineering
Stamps BW, Lyles CN, Suflita JM, Masoner JR, Cozzarelli IM, Kolpin DW, Stevenson BS (2016) Municipal solid waste landfills harbor distinct microbiomes. Front Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00534
Thorneloe SWK, Stephenson J, Kaplan O (2020) Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Energy Recovery Technologies. Washington
USEPA (2020) Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet. Accessed from Washington
Uz I, Rasche M, Townsend T, Ogram A, Lindner A (2003) Characterization of methanogenic and methanotrophic assemblages in landfill samples. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 270(suppl_2): S202-S205
Acknowledgements
Not Applicable.
Disclaimer
This document has been reviewed in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy and approved for publication. Any mention of trade names, manufacturers or products does not imply an endorsement by the United States Government or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA and its employees do not endorse any commercial products, services, or enterprises.
Funding
The funding used for this research was appropriated to US EPA ORD by US Congress.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed equally to the data collection, analysis, review, and authorship of this manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors have no conflict of interest or competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Ethical approval
Not Applicable.
Consent to participate
Not Applicable.
Consent for publication
Not Applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chickering, G., Krause, M.J. & Schwarber, A. Effects of landfill food waste diversion: a focus on microbial populations and methane generation. Biodegradation 34, 477–488 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-023-10034-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-023-10034-5