The Choosing Of A Landfill Site Essay -- essays research papers

The Choosing of a Landfill SiteThere is currently very much debate on the desirability of landfilling particularwastes, the practicability of alternatives such as waste minimisation or pre-treatment, the extent of waste pre-treatment required, and of the intimately steal landfilling strategies for the final residues. This debate is likelyto stimulate significant developments in landfilling methods during the succeeding(a)decade. Current and proposed landfill techniques are described in thisinformation sheet.Types of landfillLandfill techniques are parasitic upon both the type of waste and the landfill heed strategy. A comm solitary(prenominal) utilise classification of landfills, check towaste type only, is described below, together with a classification according tolandfill strategy.The EU Draft Landfill Directive recognises three primary(prenominal) types of landfillHazardous waste landfillMunicipal waste landfillInert waste landfill interchangeable categories are used in m any other parts of the world. In practice, thesecategories are non clear-cut. The Draft Directive recognises variants, such asmono-disposal - where only a single waste type (which may or may not be baseless) is deposited - and joint-disposal - where municipal and hazardouswastes may be co-deposited in order to gain benefit from municipal wastedecomposition processes. The landfilling of hazardous wastes is a contentiousissue and one on which there is not international consensus.Further complications arise from the difficulty of classifying wastes accurately,particularly the distinction surrounded by hazardous/non-hazardous and of ensuringthat inert wastes are genuinely inert. In practice, many wastes described asinert undergo degradation reactions similar to those of municipal solid waste(MSW), albeit at cut rates, with consequent environmental risks from gas andleachate.Alternatively, landfills can be categorised according to their managementstrategy. Four distinct strategies h ave evolved for the management of landfills(Hjelmar et al, 1995), their selection existence dependent upon attitudes, economicfactors, and geographical location, as well as the disposition of the wastes. Theyare Total containment Containment and collection of leachate Controlled taint release and Unrestricted contaminant release.A) Total containmentAll movement of water into or out of the landfill is prevented. Th... ...eatment, and the most appropriate methods, are site-specific. Thetimescale required for active leachate management is dependent on the rate atwhich pollutants are flushed from the landfill. With conventional low-permeability cover covers and containment strategies, it is likely that thetimescale will be several centuries, for wastes with a high befoulment potential,such as MSW.There is currently a great continue of interest in shortening this period by high-rate recirculation and fond(p) treatment. As yet, these accelerated flushingtechniques have not been pro ven at full-scale. Until they are, or until wasteminimisation and pre-treatment reduce the pollution potential of the wastes thatare landfilled, the coherent time-scales for pollution control arising from currentlandfill techniques will remain.References1.Hjelmar O, Johannessen LM, Knox K & Ehrig HJ, Composition and management ofleachate from landfillsthe EU. To be presented at 5th International Landfill Symposium, Sardinia,October 1995return to text within 2.Dept of the Environment, A critique of waterbalance methods and their application to landfill in the UK, UKDept of the Environment Report no. CWM 031/91.