Full-scale leachate-recirculating MSW landfill bioreactor assessments
- Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (United States)
The integrated waste management hierarchy philosophy continues to develop as a useful tool to solve solid waste issues in an environmentally responsible manner. Recent statistics indicate that approximately two thirds of municipal solid waste in the United States is disposed in landfills. Current landfill operational technique involves the preparation of a waste containment facility, the filling of the waste unit, installation of the final cover, and the maintenance of the unit. This method of operation has proven to be reasonably effective in waste disposal, effectively minimizing risk by collecting the liquid that percolates through the waste, called leachates, at the bottom of the landfill, and controlling landfill gas with collection systems. Concerns over the longevity of containment systems components present questions that cannot be answered without substantial performance data. Landfills, as currently operated, serve to entomb dry waste. Therefore, the facility must be maintained in perpetuity, consuming funds and ultimately driving up waste collection costs. This presentation will describe a new form of solid waste landfill operation, it is a technique that involves controlled natural processes to break down landfilled waste, and further minimize risk to human health and the environment. A landfill operated in an active manner will encourage and control natural decomposition of landfilled waste. This can be accomplished by collecting leachate, and reinjecting it into the landfilled waste mass. Keeping the waste mass moist will lead to a largely anaerobic system with the capacity to rapidly stabilize the landfilled waste mass via physical, chemical and biological methods. The system has proven the ability to breakdown portions of the waste mass, and to degrade toxic materials at the laboratory scale.
- OSTI ID:
- 111481
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9504110-; TRN: 95:005009-0023
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 21. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) annual Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory research symposium, Cincinnati, OH (United States), 4-6 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of 21st Annual RREL research symposium: Abstract proceedings; PB: 398 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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