Investigations on characteristics of landfill-mined-soil-like-fractions and their dependency on organic matter

Abstract

Landfill mining, LFM, is considered to be one of the alternatives to overcome adverse effects of unscientifically created landfills/dumpsites, UCLDs, and engineered landfills, ELFs. However, the feasibility of various pathways for the valorization of its yield, designated as the landfill mined residues, LMRs, for sustainable development is still being debated mainly due to not in-place schemes for comprehensive characterization of the landfill-mined-soil-like-fractions, LFMSF, which is a major component of LMRs. Due to this lacuna, proper guidelines, and strategies for utilization of the LFMSF as a manmade resource could also not be developed so far. Another constraint in this context is that the physicochemical characteristics of LFMSF have been attributed to its age, which is difficult to obtain (if not impossible), due to lack of know-how about the method of disposal, turning, and leveling of MSW, and variation in the decomposition pattern between UCLDs and ELFs. With an intention to address these issues, a comprehensive characterization of LFMSF obtained from some of the UCLDs/ELFs in India was conducted by considering their physical, chemical, mineralogical, and thermal characteristics. Based on the experimentally generated data and its statistical analysis, it has been demonstrated that the characteristics of the LFMSF are primarily influenced by its OM. Subsequently, easy to employ relationships between the OM and the characteristics of LFMSF have been developed. It is believed that these relationships will be very much useful for a quick estimation of the LFMSF characteristics that would be very handy for defining its appropriate applications to fulfill sustainable development goals.