Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Research Articles

Assessment of groundwater quality near municipal solid waste landfill by using multivariate statistical technique and GIS: a case study of Bandhwari (Gurugram) landfill site, Haryana, India

Assessment of groundwater quality near municipal solid waste landfill by using multivariate statistical technique and GIS: a case study of Bandhwari (Gurugram) landfill site, Haryana, India

Sustainability pathways in European waste management for meeting circular economy goals

This study explores trends in recycling rates and municipal solid waste landfilling to construct a circularity index (CI) forecasted up to 2035. This projection is contrasted with the pathways that countries must adopt to attain set targets. We further estimate the impact of the CI on factors such as sustainability performance, innovation, commodity trade balance, and waste reduction. Moreover, we provide policy implications useful for designing industrial and environmental strategies, including accelerating permit approval times for waste treatment facilities, introducing more flexibility in state aid rules, empowering service users or waste generators, implementing tax credits, and leveraging specialized funds. These strategies are aimed at supporting the recycling industry to stimulate convergence and achieve circular economy objectives.

Changes in the Number of Volatile Components in the Soil Under the Influence of Household Waste

Today, almost all large cities have a landfill for municipal solid waste, where solid waste is dumped, stored and partially disposed. Storage and disposal of household waste (mainly by burning) can negatively impact the structure, productivity indicators, and the agroecological state of the soil cover common around the landfill. Such high levels of heavy metals and metalloids in household waste ash, in turn, lead to soil contamination around the landfill. The reason is that the process of incineration and open storage of waste has a very negative impact on the environment. It should be noted that the level of heavy metal contamination of the soil around the domestic landfill is low. However, failure to fully comply with the measures for storage and disposal of waste can lead to contamination of soils around the landfill with heavy metals since the content of heavy metals in ashes is very high. Soil pollution with household waste affects all processes occurring in it and has a detrimental effect on the activity of living organisms living in the soil. In particular, soil pollution with household waste changes the amount of organic volatile compounds in the organic part of the soil. Studies have shown that benzofuran organic volatile compounds not found in background soils can be found in soils around municipal waste when exposed to pollution. Some compounds, such as carbonic acid-10.99% and di-n-desylsulfone-0.47%, which are noted in the background soils, were not found in soil sample No. 1 taken at the landfill. These compounds are removed from the soil as a result of waste incineration and other processes.

Air Injection Tests via Single Wells and Multiple Wells in a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Air Injection Tests via Single Wells and Multiple Wells in a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Перспективи впровадження практичного заняття «Визначення зон забруднення ґрунтів тпв та розрахунок енерговитрат їхнього очищення» з дисципліни Безпека життєдіяльності

In this paper, a method of engineering calculations is proposed, which is necessary for the implementation of the practical lesson “Definition of soil contamination zones of municipal solid waste and calculation of energy costs of their cleaning” from the normative discipline of life safety in order to promote the deepening of knowledge on the protection of the lithosphere, as a component of the natural environment, of future specialists.
 The purpose of the article is the development of the engineering calculation methodology necessary for the implementation of the practical exercise “Definition of zones of soil contamination by municipal solid waste and calculation of energy costs of their cleaning” from the discipline of life safety to promote the deepening of knowledge on the protection of the lithosphere of future specialists.
 The proposed method of engineering calculations includes the calculation of: the size of the zones of soil contamination by pollutants (heavy metals, benzapyrene, petroleum products) around municipal solid waste landfills, the specific energy consumption of landfill soil cleaning by electrochemical remediation from heavy metal contamination, the energy consumption of soil cleaning of municipal solid waste disposal landfills of municipal solid waste both by individual heavy metals and general. The specific energy costs of cleaning the soil of municipal solid waste landfills by the method of electrochemical remediation from pollution were determined depending on the required level of heavy metal concentrations. The energy costs of cleaning the soil of municipal solid waste landfills by the electrochemical remediation method of pollution were determined taking into account the size of the pollution zones and the size of the municipal solid waste landfill. Based on the comparison and comparison of the experimental data obtained as a result of the research, it was established that the success rate of the students of both experimental groups according to the stobal scale was significantly higher than the success rate of the students of the control groups, which means the introduction of the proposed practical lesson from the regulatory discipline “Life Safety” into the educational process is promising. The construction of methods of engineering calculations for the protection of the atmosphere and hydrosphere require further research.

Performance of SOFCs using model waste gases: A case study

Municipal solid waste landfills and steelmaking industry produce large amounts of high-calorific waste gases which can be utilized for energy generation. The possibility of SOFC operation using model landfill and coke-oven gases without external steam reforming of methane was experimentally demonstrated employing a SOFC short-stack comprising two electrolyte-supported membrane-electrode assemblies of planar geometry. The current-voltage dependencies, polarization resistances and composition of the effluent fuel oxidation products were tested as function of time during approximately 600 h. In all cases, complete conversion of methane occurs at the anodes even under open-circuit conditions. The maximum power density of 183 mW/cm2 was achieved for the humidified landfill gas at 850 °C and current density of 320 mA/cm2; the fuel utilization was 67% at current density of 222 mA/cm2. Neither microstructural changes nor carbon deposition were revealed by microscopic analyses after the SOFC tests. However, thermodynamic estimations showed that local anode coking may occur in a narrow zone near the fuel inlet where the fuel utilization only starts. This process correlating with local cooling detected in the vicinity of fuel inlet, may be responsible for degradation in the SOFC performance observed in the waste gas utilization regime.

The bioindicative characteristics of the Betula pendula Roth species in the dendrocenoses of the solid household waste landfill’s influence zone

Due to the constant inflow of toxic substances into the air, soil, and groundwater, landfills not only physically occupy huge expanses of land but also have an increasing negative impact on the ecosystem and its constituent parts. As such, the research relevance is determined by the problem of landfill expansion as well as the size in Ukraine getting worse by the minute. An example of morphometric alterations in leaf indicators of the species Betula pendula Roth is used to assess the effects of the municipal solid waste landfill in Zhytomyr on the nearby dendrocenoses. The most revealing morphometric indications were identified by examining the dimensions and characteristics of the venation of leaf plates at various distances from the dump up to a radius of one kilometre. Moreover, the length of the leaf’s second vein of the second order was determined as the most stable parameter, while the difference in the lengths between the bases of the first and second veins of the second order was the most sensitive. Based on the data collected on the varying asymmetry of the leaf plates, it is concluded that variations exist in the morphometric indicators over the entire distance under investigation. These variations enable the determination of the environment within the range of “polluted” to “excessively polluted”. These findings can serve as a quick way to gauge how much of an influence landfills have on the ecosystems around them when sanitary protection strips are established, municipal waste dumps are built and outfitted, etc

Estimation of total landfill surface methane emissions using geospatial approach combined with measured surface ambient air methane concentrations

ABSTRACT The concentration of surface air methane (CH4) measured in parts per million by volume (ppmv) near the soil/atmosphere interface should, in theory, have a positive correlation with surface methane emissions fluxes, measured in grams per square meter per day (gm−2d−1). Some researchers suggest that CH4 flux can be reasonably inferred from simple measurements of CH4 concentrations near the landfill surface. Ground-based and drone-based surface emissions monitoring (SEMs) were performed at several municipal solid waste landfills as tracer correlation method (TCM) testing was being used to measure total methane emissions from the same landfills. The TCM data and SEM data were used to establish a new simple correlation to convert surface methane concentrations in ppmv to localized surface methane emission flux in gm−2d−1. The SEM data obtained from ten ground and drone monitoring campaigns were log-transformed and geospatially treated using inverse distance weighting to the power of 2 to predict methane surface concentrations in the entire footprint of the SEM measurements area. The developed new correlation equation was then used to convert every predicted surface methane concentration to an emissions flux. The total estimate of surface emissions from the entire landfill was obtained by integrating the predicted fluxes over the area of the footprint of the SEM measurement area. The use of the new developed correlation resulted in higher total emissions estimates than other correlations reported in the literature and should be considered more conservative. Not including other factors, the proposed approach provides estimate of total methane emissions with a coefficient of variation of 20%. This study introduces a novel approach that utilizes a developed correlation between surface methane concentrations and surface emissions fluxes to estimate total methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills or from a specified area. This study provides an additional use of the quarterly SEM data. Implications: The proposed approach provides an occasion for additional use of the easily obtainable quarterly SEMs data that can be performed by most landfills. The SEMs data are the most abundant landfill methane concentrations data. This approach gives them more benefit for the user. It is intended to convert ambient air concentrations to some estimates of surface emissions that can help landfill owners with decision making such as remediation activities or adjustments of their gas collection a systems.

Leachate indicators of an elevated temperature landfill

Elevated temperature landfills (ETLFs) are municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills that have been impacted by subsurface exothermic reactions (SERs) and display unusual gas and leachate composition. Leachate quantity and quality data were analyzed to identify indicators of a SER at an ETLF in Ohio, USA. ETLF leachate generation increased from 2.04 to 14.4 m3/hectare-day (218 to 1,539 gallons/acre-day), peaking 16 months after the reaction was first noticed. The leachate generation rate for this ETLF remains about two times greater than the average Ohio MSW landfill. Several general parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and total dissolved solids (TDS) remain impacted 5 years later. Similarly, metals such as arsenic, iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium have increased in concentration. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) behavior was less consistent as a group of chemicals. Increases of VOCs such as acetone, benzene, and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) also increased. Importantly, in one year, benzene exceeded its toxicity characteristic threshold meaning the leachate was a hazardous waste, substantially increasing treatment and disposal costs. It is not clear if the VOCs are produced directly by the SER or if they are an indicator that microbial processes -which would otherwise consume them- have been disrupted. ETLFs likely do not all undergo the same exothermic reaction(s) and, unlike the analysis of landfill gas composition, temporal changes in leachate constituents’ concentrations may be more important than comparing to absolute values.

Insight into the impact of industrial waste co-disposal with MSW on groundwater contamination at the open solid waste dumping sites

Due to the lack of normalized management, industrial waste is often co-disposed at open solid waste dumping sites, which could aggravate the groundwater pollution. In this study, 5 practical open solid waste dumping sites dealing with municipal solid wastes (MSW) (2 of 5) and industrial wastes mixed with MSW (3 of 5) were chosen to investigate the effect of waste co-disposal on the groundwater contamination. The industrial waste was mainly from rubber production, leather production, machinery industry, pharmaceutical industry and plastic production. 3 to 6 groundwater wells were excavated from each dumping site and 148 indices were analyzed, including regular chemicals, heavy metals, biological pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and pesticide residues. Nemerow index analysis showed that 5 indices were severely polluted in the groundwater from every industrial waste co-disposal landfill, while only 0 and 1 severely polluted index was found for the two MSW landfill, respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA) analysis indicated that 2 biological pollutant (plate-counting bacteria (TPB) and total coliforms (TCs)), 4 chemical pollutants (permanganate index, ammonia, S2− and petroleum) were closely connected with the disposal of industrial waste. Besides, co-disposal of industrial waste also brought in series of PAHs and dichloromethane, with di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate exceeding the standard limit (10.5 mg L−1). Attention should be paid to TPB and TCs, whose maximal concentrations exceeded the standard limit by extraordinary 3200 and 1600 times, respectively. The distribution pattern of the pollutants showed that the biological pollutants at the downstream area, and chemical pollutants at the leakage points exhibited the highest concentration, which indicated the downstream area and seepage points should be specially concerned for the industry waste co-disposed dumping sites.

Microplastics as carriers of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogens in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate and soil: a review.

Microplastics as carriers of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogens in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate and soil: a review.

UAV-based approach for municipal solid waste landfill monitoring and water ponding issue detection using sensor fusion

Abstract Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills need regular monitoring to ensure proper operations and meet environmental protection requirements. One requirement is to monitor landfill gas emissions from the landfill cover while another requirement is to monitor the potential settlement and damage to MSW landfill covers. Current surveying methods on a landfill cover are time- and labor-intensive and have limited spatial coverage. Landfill operators and researchers have developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based monitoring over recent years; however, UAV-based automatic detection of water ponding in landfills has not been studied. Hence, this study proposes a UAV-based approach to monitor landfills and detect water ponding issues on covers by using multimodal sensor fusion. Data acquired from sensors mounted on a UAV were combined, leading to the creation of a ponding index (PI). This index was used to detect potential ponding sites or areas of topographical depression. The proposed approach has been applied in a case study of a closed MSW landfill before and after Hurricane Ian. A comparison between the generated PI map and a manual survey revealed a satisfactory performance with an IoU score of 70.74%. Hence, the utilization of UAV-based data fusing and the developed PI offers efficient identification of potential ponding areas.

Biochemical, hydrological and mechanical behaviors of high food waste content MSW landfill: Numerical simulation analysis of a large-scale experiment

The complex process of thermal-hydro-mechanical-biochemical (THMBC) coupled degradation in high food waste content (HFWC) municipal solid waste (MSW) is the main cause of intense heat, gas, and leachate generation in the landfills, which could lead to environmental disasters. A large-scale indoor experiment on HFWC MSW has been done with operations of loading, heated mature leachate recharging to study the rules of degradation. A THMBC coupled degradation model is used to analyze the results in the first 400 days drawn from the experiments, to explain how recharge of heated mature leachate accelerated degradation process and how was the portion of settlement led by intraparticle water release. The numerical simulation also calculated the landfill gas that was not collected in the experiment due to operational defects. The results show that recharging the heated mature leachate allows the stabilization process to occur at least six months earlier and settlement due to intraparticle water release accounts for half of the settlement in the first 60 days. The research indicates highly coupled THMBC model can be used to analyze the complex process in MSW degradation, make up for the shortcomings of physical experiments, and provide theoretical support for the design, construction, and management of landfills.

Geothermal gradients in a high-organic content landfill

Geothermal gradients in a high-organic content landfill

Component composition of the processed forming mixture and mineralogical recommendations for its re-use

Modern industrial production is aimed at the development of waste-free technological processes, wider use in the production of waste and by-products. The largest amount of waste is generated from the activities of mining and metallurgical enterprises. One of the problems of foundry production is the disposal of multiton solid waste, about 90% of which is spent molding mixture. Part of the spent mixture is reused as recyclable, but the main mass of it is collected at municipal solid waste landfills. This work is devoted to the study of the component composition of foundry production waste – spent molding mixture with the aim of its reuse. According to the results of the research carried out by the authors, mineralogical recommendations regarding its reuse were provided. Involvement in the reuse of spent molding mixture will allow to free up part of the solid household waste landfills, reduce the negative man-made load on the environment, and additionally obtain conditioned restored molding sands.

Sustainable Leachate Treatment Plant System at Landfill Site: A Multicriteria Analysis Approach

Leachate generated from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill may cause various negative impacts, therefore it should be treated properly in a Leachate Treatment Plant (LTP). The paper aims to select a more sustainable LTP system in Indonesia by applying Analytic Network Process (ANP) as multicriteria analysis approach. 5 alternative LTP systems were analyzed using 5 criteria namely economic, environmental, social, technical, and institutional capacity with a total of 25 sub-criteria. Total 36 respondents from municipality staffs, academics, professionals, and LTP operators were interviewed by adopting pair wise comparison. The results from Driving Dependence Power Analysis (DDPA) showed that sub-criteria for operating costs (E2), maintenance costs (E3), processing effectiveness (T1) and monitoring needs (T3) have the highest dependence power value. Sub-criteria of the operational cost (E2) and the availability of regulations (K2) have the highest driving power value. Main considerations for selecting LTP system at a final disposal site by respondents were economic criteria (weight 0.3219) and water protection sub-criteria (L2, weight 0.17). Top priority of the technology chosen by respondents were Alternative#1 consist of Anaerobic, Facultative and Maturation ponds and Biofilter.

Effect of Compaction Effort on Penetration Resistance and Shear Strength of Landfilled and Fresh Municipal Solid Waste

High quality in-situ compaction of municipal solid waste (MSW) is required to ensure landfill stability. However given the heterogeneous composition of MSW, it is important to assess the potential sensitivity of Dynamic cone penetrometers (DCP) and direct shear apparatus to changes in compaction effort, composition and aging effect and different specific work per blow of DCP on penetration resistance (DPI) and shear strength parameters of fresh and excavated Johannesburg landfill municipal solid waste. The results reveal that for average density range of 354kg/m3 to 722kg/m3 the mobilized penetration resistance, DPI was 15–40 mm/blow for DCP specific work per blow of 144 kJ/m2 and 10– 33 mm/blow due to reduced work per blow of 92kJ/m2. The friction angle and cohesion of fresh waste and landfilled waste with fibrous content of 45% and 64% respectively are 19° and 12kPa for fresh waste and 21°and 31kPa for landfilled waste. 24 hours soaking of waste resulted in reduction in friction angle of fresh waste and cohesion of landfilled waste respectively. Controlling the ratio of sand, organics and fibrous content in recycling program is required to increase the stability of landfilled sites exposed to high tropical rainfall.

Polymer blends manufactured from fresh & landfill mined plastic waste: Are they composites?

Plastics are primarily single-use and are disposed of in municipal solid waste landfills at the end of their life cycle. Such plastic waste undergoes partial degradation and results in the leaching of persistent contaminants such as surfactants, plasticizers, fire retardants, micro(nano)plastics, nanomaterials, etc., which are of great concern. Hence, the recovery and utilization of landfill-mined plastic waste (LMPW) and fresh municipal plastics waste (FMPW) is mandatory. Though thermal treatment techniques are widely used, they could treat only ≈8% of the total plastic waste generated due to their demand for pollution control measures which have been proven expensive. In this context, mechanical recycling, which allows the conversion of plastic waste into composites for different engineering applications, has been investigated by adding appropriate fillers. However, before creating composites, a comprehensive understanding of mechanically recycled waste plastics alone (read as blends) is necessary. This becomes important because most plastics used in domestic and industrial activities are significantly augmented by adding organic or inorganic constituents to achieve the target properties. Hence, the perpetual question, ‘whether the recycled polymer blends obtained from FMPW and LMPW are composites’ remains unanswered. This is key to decide upon the optimal dosage of the fillers to be used for achieving the target properties of the composites. To address these issues, extensive investigations were conducted to establish the overall characteristics of different blends obtained from FMPW and LMPW. Furthermore, after removing the polymeric component, the residues obtained from these blends were extensively characterized. This exercise revealed that the residues mainly constitute CaCO3, TiO2, and SiO2, which are either intentionally added while manufacturing virgin plastics or are due to contamination. It was also observed that the mechanical properties of the blends get enhanced due to the presence of residues, which indicates that these are composites and not blends.

Antibiotics inhibit methanogenesis during municipal solid waste decomposition

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are significant sources of antibiotics. However, the effects of antibiotics on MSW decomposition process and methanogenesis during solid waste decomposition remain insufficiently characterized. This study investigated the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations (ERCs) of antibiotics (200 μg/kg for each antibiotic) on MSW decomposition and methanogenesis in bioreactors treated with and without eight antibiotics (three tetracyclines, three sulfonamides, and two macrolides). The key phases of MSW decomposition, namely the aerobic, anaerobic acid, and methanogenic phases, were determined by analyzing the key physiochemical parameters of the leachate, including pH, chemical oxygen demand, and biochemical oxygen demand. We assessed the bacterial and archaeal compositions, along with the abundance of the gene encoding the alpha subunit of methyl-coenzyme M reductase (mcrA), during MSW decomposition using high throughput 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reactions, respectively. Our results revealed that antibiotics significantly altered the compositions of bacteria and methanogens, leading to decreased mcrA abundance and methanogenesis. Specifically, antibiotics inhibited cellulose-degrading bacteria (Firmicutes) and archaea (E2) in the anaerobic acid phase and hydrolytic bacteria (Proteobacteria) in the methanogenic phase, resulting in lower degradation of biodegradable matter than that of the biodegradation without antibiotics treatment. However, the typical MSW decomposition process indicated by the key decomposition phases was successfully separated in both bioreactors, suggesting that antibiotics did not affect overall MSW decomposition process development or the associated individual decomposition phases establishment. These findings suggest that antibiotics at ERCs may inhibit methanogenesis during MSW decomposition, thereby providing fundamental information for methane management and climate change studies.

An elastoplastic constitutive model for municipal solid waste (MSW) incorporating solid particle compression and fibrous reinforcing effect

The failures in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills could result in considerable ecological as well as social problems. Numerical simulations are widely employed to analyze MSW deformation and stability. These methods require an appropriate stress-strain characterization of MSW, which is crucial. Different from soils, the extremely complicated constituents of MSW contain a large number of fibrous reinforced and particle compressible materials. The findings of numerous tests suggest that the fiber reinforced phase and the basic phase are solely responsible for determining the mechanical properties of MSW. On the basis of the double-phase assumption, a new plastic potential function of MSW is developed considering that the reinforcement of fibrous materials only relates to plastic shear strain and the particle compression only affects plastic volumetric strain. According to the associate flow rule, a constitutive model based on elastoplasticity is developed for MSW. The strain hardening behaviour of MSW is well predicted by the model, and this behaviour is in good agreement with experimental evidence. Effects of confining pressure and fibre content are modelled, together with the mechanical and deformation behaviour of MSW. The accurate calculation of effective stresses is obtained through considering the MSW particle compression under the undrained conditions. Parametric investigations calibrate the model and show its properties by comparing them to data from triaxial tests. Moreover, incorporating the proposed model, finite-element numerical simulation was conducted, and the results of finite-element numerical simulation were compared with field monitoring results.