As the population increases, the volume of waste generated from human activities also increase and this

condition needs to be managed properly. Waste production from human activities will be piled up in an
open landfill (TPA). Waste is divided into degradable waste (can be composed) and nondegradable waste
(can not be composed). Pile of waste in TPA, which can be called landfill, possessed a very high risk of
landslide if it is not managed properly, especially if this management is operated with open dumping
method. Landslide in a landfill is a common occurrence in Indonesia.. Landslide could happen without
involving the subgrade. Shear strength of the waste pile is affected by cohesion (c). The chosen waste
sample is biodegradable waste which is a dominant component in Indonesia’s waste in TPA. Meanwhile,
shear strength of the waste is an important parameter in processing ang managing landfill both for waste
in fresh condition and waste in degraded condition. This experiment focused in waste shear strength as a
shear angle and cohesion which have not widely studied in Indonesia. This experiment is not only
experimenting the waste mechanical properties with 15 cm in diameter modified direct shear test, the
waste physical properties (water content, density, and waste particle analysis), and also the waste
chemical properties as in organic-C and total-N. The experiment used artificial waste from 80% dried
rubber tree leaves and 20% used newspaper waste, the leaves and the paper is chopped to ± 1-1,5 cm in
size. The result obtained are, the waste was changing during the chemical degradation. C/N ratio
decreased showed that the waste experienced degradation until day 90 of experiment. Water
content is increasing, and dry density of the waste tended to be flat. Mechanical properties for
shear strength and cohesien is increasing while the shear angle is decreasing as the process of
degradation occur.

Keywords: artficial waste, biodegradable waste, modified direct shear method, cohesien, shear
angle, water content, density, waste particle.