Sustainable Approach for Landfill Management at Final Processing Site Cikundul in Sukabumi City, Indonesia

Abstract

The main problem of landfill management in Indonesia is the difficulty in getting a location for Final Processing Sites (FPS) due to limited land and high land prices. Besides, about 95% of existing landfills are uncontrolled dumping sites, which could potentially lead to water, soil and air pollution. Based on data from the Ministry of Environment (2010), The Act of the Republic of Indonesia Number 18 Year 2008 Concerning Solid Waste Management, prohibits open dumping at final processing sites and in ratification, the Local Governments have to convert the open dump sites into controlled or sanitary landfill. The Research Institute for Human Settlements has been conducting multi-year researches related to the rehabilitation of dumpsites toward sustainable landfill. The research methods are literature reviews, experiments, laboratory analysis and field observations. A pilot model of dumpsite rehabilitation was carried out in 2010 at the Final Processing Site at Cikundul in Sukabumi City, consisting of (1) mining landfill (2) construction of landfill cells in a former mining area with a semi aerobic landfill and an anaerobic landfill and (3) landfill operations using decomposed material from landfill mining as a soil cover. The purpose of the study is to develop a sustainable approach for landfill management and rehabilitation through landfill mining and implementation of semi aerobic landfill. Findings in the construction of landfill mining indicate that (1) the construction of landfill mining is constrained by leachate that is trapped in a pile of waste, therefore, the leachate needs to be pumped to leachate treatment installations, (2) the volume of waste excavation is expanding due to the high plastic content of about 26% in landfills (3) the potency of decomposed materials from landfill mining is 40– 83% for landfill operations or greening.. The performance of landfill systems shows that leachate quality of semi aerobic landfill tends to be lower than that of anaerobic landfill. Gas composition at semi aerobic landfill in FPS Sukabumi shows about 6–10% CH4 and about 15–16% O2; for an aerobic landfill, the gas composition is about 47– 57% CH4 and about 2–3% O2. In conclusion the concept mining landfill could be developed especially for big cities where it is difficult to find a new site for landfill or to get soil cover for landfill operation. In a sustainable approach, the excavated area can be turned into a new area for landfill cell so that the capacity of existing Final Processing Site can be expanded using the block landfill concept. The landfill should be divided into three blocks: compost block, composting block and active block. Usage of the three blocks are rotated with the intention of using solid waste on the compost block as soil material for the active block through landfill mining.