Sanitary Landfill Operation and Management

Abstract

As part of the transformation to achieve sustainable resource recovery and waste management, landfills play an important role. The landfill’s primary function is to accept solid wastes that cannot be “avoided, reduced, reused, recycled, or recovered.” Recognizing that residual waste composition has changed and will continue to evolve over time in response to technological advancements in recovery operations, it is critical that a precautionary approach be taken to properly mitigate the environmental risks of landfill facilities. Landfills must be built to have the least amount of negative environmental effects possible. The landfill’s design must take into account the surrounding area, the amount and nature of waste to be disposed of, the host community’s concerns, adjacent land use, and economic and social factors. Landfills should be planned and maintained in such a way that pollutants such as landfill gas, leachate, and stormwater are effectively managed. Monitoring is crucial for having a better understanding and trust in the site’s controls and risks, which advises management and treatment options. Rather than a monitoring program that validates impacts that have occurred, a monitoring program should be developed to cover all emissions and put a priority on monitoring to verify the efficacy of current controls, such as by monitoring leachate content, leachate levels, and surface water (groundwater monitoring).

Glossary

Aerobic composting

A method of composting organic wastes that involve the use of bacteria that require oxygen. This necessitates exposing the waste to sunlight, either by turning it or pushing air into pipes that pass through it.

Anaerobic digestion

A form of composting that does not necessitate the use of oxygen. Methane is generated by this composting process. Anaerobic composting is another name for it.

Ash

Solid by-products of incineration or other burning processes that are noncombustible.

Autoclaving

A pressurized, high-temperature steam process is used to sterilize the products.

Baghouse

An emission control system for a combustion plant that consists of a series of fabric filters that carry flue gases via an incinerator flue. Particles are suspended, preventing them from entering the atmosphere.

Basel Convention

The Basel Convention is a treaty that was signed by over 100 countries on the management of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, which was drafted in March 1989 in Basel, Switzerland.

Biodegradable material

Any organic material that microorganisms can break down into simpler, more stable compounds. The majority of organic wastes (such as food and paper) are biodegradable.

Bottom ash

The incinerator residue that accumulates on the grate of a furnace is relatively coarse, noncombustible, and generally toxic.

Bulky waste

Big wastes, such as machinery, furniture, and trees and branches, cannot be processed using standard MSW methods.

Cell

The fundamental building block of a landfill. It is where incoming waste is flipped, scattered, compacted, and sealed.

Cleaner production

Processes that aim to reduce the amount of waste produced during processing.

Co-disposal

Generation of both electricity and steam from the same fuel source in a single plant.

Collection

Paper, plastics, wood, and food and garden wastes are all combustible materials in the waste stream.

Combustion

Materials are burned in an incinerator.

Commingled

After being isolated from mixed MSW, mixed recyclables are collected together.

Communal collection

A waste disposal system in which people carry their trash to a central location where it is processed.

Compactor vehicle

To minimize the amount of solid waste, a recycling vehicle with high-power mechanical or hydraulic equipment is used.

Composite liner

A land-fill liner system made up of an engineered soil layer and a synthetic sheet of material.

Compost

The content that results from a composting. Compost, also known as humus, is a soil conditioner that can also be used as a fertilizer in some cases.

Composting

Biological decomposition of solid organic materials into a soil-like substance by bacteria, fungi, and other species.

Construction and demolition debris

Waste includes bricks, asphalt, drywall, lumber, miscellaneous metal parts and sheets, packaging products, and other materials.

Controlled dump

A proposed landfill with some of the characteristics of a sanitary landfill: hydrogeological suitability, grading, compaction in some cases, leachate control, partial gas management, frequent (but not always daily) cover, access control, simple record-keeping, and managed waste picking.

Curbside collection

Compostables, recyclables, and garbage are collected at the edge of a sidewalk in front of a home or business.

Disposal

Following collection, sorting, or incineration, the final handling of solid waste. The most common method of disposal is to deposit waste in a landfill or a dump.

Emissions

Gases that have been emitted into the atmosphere.

Energy recovery

The method of extracting useful energy from waste, usually by using the heat produced by incineration or landfill methane gas.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA)

An assessment aimed at determining and forecasting the effect of a policy or project on the climate, human health, and well-being. Risk evaluation, as well as economic and land use assessments, are all possible components.

Environmental risk assessment (EnRA)

A study of the relationships between agents, humans, and natural resources. Usually assessing the probabilities and magnitudes of harm that may be caused by environmental pollutants, it is made up of human health risk assessment and ecological risk assessment.

European Commission’s Waste Landfill Directive

Aims to protect both human health and the environment. With the goal to prevent, or reduce as much as possible, any negative impact from landfill on surface water, groundwater, soil, air, and human health by introducing rigorous operational and technical requirements.

Flaring

At a landfill, methane released from storage pipes is burned.

Fluidized-bed incinerator

The stoker grate is replaced by a bed of limestone or sand that can withstand high temperatures in this form of an incinerator. The word “fluidized” comes from the fact that the bed is heated and high air velocities are used, causing the bed to bubble.

Fly ash

The extremely toxic particulate matter captured by an air pollution control device from an incinerator’s flue gas.

Geomembrane

A low permeability synthetic membrane liner or barrier used with any geotechnical engineering related material to control fluid migration in a human-made project, structure, or system.

Groundwater

Water that fills underground pockets (known as aquifers) and supplies wells and springs under the earth’s surface.

Hazardous waste

Reactive, poisonous, corrosive, or otherwise harmful to living things and/or the atmosphere waste. Hazardous manufacturing by-products abound.

Heavy metals

Metals with a high atomic weight and density that are poisonous to living organisms, such as mercury, lead, and cadmium.

Household hazardous waste

Items used in homes that are harmful to living organisms and/or the atmosphere, such as paints and certain cleaning compounds.

Incineration

The method of burning waste by reducing the weight and volume of solid waste while still producing energy under regulated conditions.

Inorganic waste

Sand, dust, glass, and a variety of synthetics are examples of waste made up of materials other than plant or animal matter.

Integrated solid waste management

Usage of a coordinated collection of waste management strategies, each of which may play a role in a larger MSVVM strategy.

In-vessel composting

Composting in a closed vessel or drum with a balanced internal setting, mechanical mixing, and aeration are all options.

Landfill gas (LFG)

Consists of a mixture of different gases produced by microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste. It is approximately 40–60% methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide.

Landfill gases

Methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide are the main gases produced by the decomposition of organic wastes. Landfills can experience explosions as a result of these gases.

Landfilling

The final disposal of solid waste by depositing it in a regulated manner in a long-term location. This concept is used in the Source Book to describe both supervised dumps and sanitary landfills.

Leachate pond

A pond or tank built at a landfill to collect leachate from the surrounding area. Typically, the pond is built to handle the leachate in some way, such as allowing solids to settle or allowing for aeration to facilitate biological processes.

Leachate

Any liquid, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Referring to liquid produced from landfills or dumpsites.

Liner

A protective layer made of soil and/or synthetic materials, which is built along the bottom and sides of a landfill to prevent or minimize leachate from entering the atmosphere.

Lysimeter

A device used to measure the amount of actual evapotranspiration.

Materials recovery facility (MRF)

A facility for manually or mechanically separating commingled recyclables. Some MRFs are planned to distinguish recyclables from mixed municipal solid waste. The recovered materials are then baled and sold by MRFs.

Materials recovery

Obtaining goods that are recyclable or can be reused.

Methane

Is an odorless, colorless, flammable, and explosive gas formed by landfills anaerobically decomposing MSW.

Mixed waste

Materials that have been discarded into the waste stream without being sorted.

MSW

The term “municipal solid waste” refers to all solid waste generated in a given region, except industrial and agricultural waste. Construction and demolition debris, as well as other special wastes, can sometimes join the municipal waste stream. Hazardous wastes are generally excluded, except to the degree that they join the industrial waste stream. Occasionally, the term is used to refer to all solid wastes for which a city government takes responsibility in some way.

MSWM

Municipal solid waste management.

Municipal solid waste (MSW)

Commonly known as trash or garbage, which consists of everyday items we use and then throw away. The sources include homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses.

Open dump

An impromptu “landfill” with a few, if any, of the characteristics of a managed landfill. Usually, there is no leachate monitoring, no access control, no cover, no management, and a large number of waste pickers.

Organic waste

Is described as carbon-based waste, which includes paper, plastics, wood, food waste, and yard waste. In MSWM practice, the term is often used in a more limited context to refer to material that is derived more directly from plant or animal sources and can be decomposed by microorganisms.

Pathogen

Organism that is capable of causing disease.

Processing

Using processes such as baling, magnetic isolation, grinding, and shredding, MSW materials are prepared for future use or management. Separation of recyclables from mixed MSW is another word for the same thing.

Putrescible

Decomposition or decay is a term used to describe the process of decomposition or decay. Food wastes and other organic wastes that decompose easily are often referred to as “biodegradable.”

Pyrolysis

In the absence of oxygen, heat causes chemical decomposition of a material, resulting in various hydrocarbon gases and carbon-like residue.

Recyclables

Things that can be reprocessed into new product feedstock. Paper, glass, iron, corrugated cardboard, and plastic containers are all common examples.

Recycling

The method of converting materials into raw materials for the production of new goods that may or may not be identical to the original.

Refuse

A word that is often interchanged with solid waste.

Refuse-derived fuel (RDF)

MSW that has been processed and is used to make diesel. Separation of recyclables and noncombustible materials, shredding, size reduction, and pelletizing are all examples of processing.

Resource recovery

Utilization of resources and energy from wastes is referred to as resource recovery.

Reuse

The use of a commodity in its original form more than once for the same or a different reason.

Rubbish

Solid waste is referred to as “waste” in general. Food wastes and ashes are sometimes excluded.

Sanitary landfill

An engineered method of disposing of solid waste on land that meets most of the standard requirements, such as proper siting, comprehensive site planning, proper leachate and gas management and tracking, compaction, regular and final cover, full access control, and record-keeping.

Secured landfill

A waste management facility that is built to keep wastes out of the atmosphere indefinitely. This involves burying the wastes in a landfill with clay and/or synthetic liners, leachate collection, gas collection (if gas is produced), and an impermeable cover.

Sewage sludge

A semi-liquid residue found at the bottom of canals and pipes containing sewage or industrial wastewaters, as well as the bottom of wastewater treatment tanks.

Site remediation

Removing hazardous solids or liquids from a contaminated site or handling them on-site.

Source reduction

The process of designing, manufacturing, acquiring, and reusing materials in order to reduce the amount and/or toxicity of waste generated.

Source separation

To promote reuse, recycling, and composting, compostable and recyclable materials are separated from the waste stream before being collected with other MSW.

Special wastes

Wastes that are preferably kept out of the MSW stream but occasionally find their way in and must be dealt with by local governments. Household hazardous waste, medical waste, building and demolition debris, war and earthquake debris, tires, oils, wet batteries, sewage sludge, human excreta, slaughterhouse waste, and industrial waste are all examples of these.

Tipping fee

Unloading or dumping waste at a landfill, transfer station, incinerator, or recycling plant is subject to a levy.

Tipping floor

A place, usually on the outskirts of a neighborhood, where small collection vehicles move waste to larger vehicles for transport to disposal sites.

Vectors

Organisms that bear pathogens that cause disease. The key vectors that disperse pathogens outside the landfill site are mice, flies, and birds.

Virgin materials

Any raw material for industrial processes that has never been used before, such as wood pulp trees, iron ore, crude oil, and bauxite.

Waste characterization study

The analysis of samples from a waste stream to determine its composition is known as waste characterization.

Waste collector

An individual hired by a municipality or a private company to collect trash from homes, businesses, and community bins.

Waste management hierarchy

A rating of waste management operations based on the environmental or energy benefits they have. The waste management hierarchy was created with the aim of making waste management activities as environmentally friendly as possible.

Waste picker

An individual who separates recyclables from mixed waste wherever it is temporarily accessible or discarded.

Waste reduction

All methods of minimizing the amount of waste generated at the outset and collected by solid waste authorities. This includes everything from regulations and product design to community-based initiatives aimed at keeping recyclables and compostables out of the final waste stream.

Waste stream

A community’s, region’s, or facility’s complete waste flow.

Waste-to-energy (WTE) plant

A plant that generates energy from solid waste materials (processed or unprocessed). Incinerators that produce steam for district heating or industrial use, as well as facilities that convert landfill gas to electricity, are examples of WTE plants.

Water table

The depth below which the earth’s crust becomes filled with water.

Wetland

For at least part of the year, an area that is constantly wet or flooded and has a water level that is at or above the ground surface.

Working face

The length and width of the waste-disposal row at a landfill. The tipping face is another name for it.

Yard waste

Yard and garden waste includes leaves, grass clippings, prunings, and other natural organic matter.