Abstract
A large portion of municipal waste, disposed in landfills, is organic in nature. This organicmaterial starts decomposing soon after the disposal in landfills. The decomposition leads to the generation ofin situ leachate, and this leachate can contain substantial amounts of contaminants. Under arid conditions,leachate is solely generated by waste decomposition, as little input of external water occurs due to rain. Theobjective of this study was to characterize the in situ leachate from typical waste streams in Pakistan. Wecollected fresh municipal solid wastes typical of household, mixed, and restaurant waste, and analyzed theleachates for volume and water quality parameters. The wastes released up to 30% of their initial moisture asleachate and the leachate contained metals, organic carbon, and nutrients at concentrations many times higherthan the environmental water quality standards for waste water discharge. As landfill leachate in Pakistan isusually not contained or collected, the in situ leachate is a source of surface and ground water contamination.Methods have to be developed and implemented to prevent leaching of contaminants into underlying soils andsediments, and subsequently into ground and surface waters.
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