Aman Khandelwal

Aman Khandelwal
2008UCE108
2008UCE108
C-1 C-1
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Background
 With increasing urbanization, the prob. is mounting
ahead.
Case study:
 10 million people live in Dhaka city
(BANGLADESH)
 Daily waste about 3000-3500 tons.
 At present 110 hectares land is required to dispose
waste. By 2015 it will require up to 292 hectares of
land
 And Bangladesh, a land-scarce country, does not have
such physical space.
 The indiscriminate disposal causes serious
environmental hazards and health risks.
 Wastes in landfills also clog the urban drainage system,
cause frequent floods and contaminate drinking water
sources.
 Thus, the growing problem of solid waste dumping in
landfills is posing increasing threats to the health and
well being of the residents.
 Problems associated with landfills
1. Drinking water contamination
 Leachate is water that gets badly contaminated by
contacting waste.
 Municipal landfill sites produce leachates when rain,
surface or ground water enters into the landfill site.
 Leaking landfills pollutes drinking water wells.
 Leachates are rich in chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents
(CHS), which are very toxic and carcinogenic.
Sources of leachates
 Municipal waste dumping sites
 Industrial leachates
 Recent investigations have found remarkable quality
deterioration under landfill leachates and identified a
number of CHS in groundwater from the industrial
areas.
 In a recent study of 163 municipal waste landfills in the
U.S.A, there was evidence of contamination rate for
ground water quality at 146 of them.
2. Global Warming
 Biodegradable garbage rotting in a landfill produces
methane gas—a ‘greenhouse gas’ that contributes to
global warming.
 Methane is 21 times more potent in its greenhouse
effect than carbon dioxide (from car exhaust), and
landfills are the largest man-made source of
methane (37% globally).
How landfills are constructed and why
they fail?
Excavation
1. BOTTOM LINER
 One or more layers of
clay or a synthetic flexible
membrane (or a
combination of these).
 The liner effectively
creates a bathtub in the
ground.
 There are three types of
liners:
clay, plastic, and composite
WHAT IS WRONG WITH A CLAY
LINER?

 Natural clay is often fractured and cracked.

 A mechanism called diffusion will move organic
chemicals
Like, benzene through a three-foot thick clay
landfill liner in approximately five years.
 WHAT IS WRONG WITH A PLASTIC
LINER?
 Best landfill liners are
made of a tough plastic
film called high density
polyethylene (HDPE).
 Household chemicals
degrade HDPE,
permeating it, lose its
strength, softening it, or
making it become brittle
and crack.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH COMPOSITE
LINERS?
 It is a single liner made of two parts, a
plastic liner and compacted soil
 Materials: slightly permeable to
liquids or gases
 Additional leakage results from
defects such as cracks, holes, and
faulty seams.
 Studies show that a 10-acre landfill
will have a leak rate somewhere
between 0.2 and 10 gallons per day.
WHAT IS A LEACHATE COLLECTION
SYSTEM?
 Leachates water (contaminated
water) seeps to the bottom of a
landfill and is collected by a
system of pipes.
 Bottom is sloped; pipes laid along
the bottom capture contaminated
water and other fluid (leachate) as
they accumulate.
 The pumped leachate is treated at
a wastewater treatment plant.
PROBLEMS WITH LEACHATE
COLLECTION SYSTEMS?
Clog up in less than a decade.
They fail in several known ways:
1. Clog up:
 from silt or mud
 Growth of microorganisms in the pipe
 Chemical reaction leading to the precipitation of minerals in the
pipes
2. The pipes become weakened by chemical attack
3. May be crushed by the tons of garbage piled on them
If it occurs then
leachate liquid pressure failure of bottom liner leakage
WHAT IS A COVER?
 Umbrella over the landfill to keep water out
Consist of several sloped layers:
 clay or membrane liner
 overlain by a very permeable layer of sandy or
gravelly soil
 overlain by topsoil in which vegetation can root
If the cover is not maintained
rain water landfill leachate leakage or
bathtub
overflows
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH
COVERS?
Sources which attack covers are:
 Erosion by natural weathering
 Vegetation sending down roots penetrate
the cover
 Burrowing of soil dwelling mammals,
reptiles, insects, and worms threats to cover.
 Sunlight will dry out clay or destroy membrane
liners through the action of ultraviolet radiation
 Human activities of many kinds.
 Methods to reduce waste
1.CLEANER TECHNOLOGY
To avoid creating waste we should:
 Buy only what we need and can use
 Avoid extra packaging
 Separate wastes such as paper, tins and bottles for recycling or
re-use.

Industries should be encouraged to:

 Check that machinery is working properly
 Use less raw materials
 Recover and recycle waste wherever possible
 Reduce toxicity of the waste
 Use only necessary packaging
 Train staff to avoid mistakes that cause waste, such as spilling
of oil or chemicals.
2. REUSE
We should:
• Consider reusable products
• Maintain and repair durable products
• Reuse bags, containers, and other items
• Borrow, rent, or share items used infrequently
• Sell or donate goods instead of throwing them out.
3.RECOVER AND RECYCLE
We can take useful items out of our waste and use
them again, for example:
• old engine oil and car batteries can be taken back to the
garage for recycling
• tins, bottles and paper can be taken to recycling bins
• vegetable peels can be made into compost

And also we should:

• Choose recyclable products and containers and recycle
them
• Select products made from recycled materials.
Conclusion
There is no debate that all landfills eventually
contaminate our environment. It is expected that in
future, municipal solid waste management practices
will greatly emphasize in resource recovery, and
solid waste reduction. Modern techniques with
energy recovery will play an important role in waste
reduction and energy conservation. So alternatives
to land filling would have environmental effects
which include: resources for the future, jobs from
discards, more open space and natural habitat, less
contamination of drinking water and soil
improvement to assist agriculture in fertile soil.
References:
1. Bernard B, Charles H. P., DeBell and Richardson (1973), “Solid
waste Disposal, vol-1, incineration and landfill”, 1st edition,
Michigan, USA
2. GETSTUFF (2010), “How Landfills Work”, [On Line]
http://science.howstuffworks.com/landfill6.htm [07th March,
11]
3. Maksimovic C., Jose A.T.G. (2001), “Frontiers in urban Water
Management, Deadlock or Hope” 2nd edition, IWA publishing,
London, UK
4. Ljiljana R., (2000), “Reliability of Landfill Technology”, 1st
edition, Uitgeverij Eburon, Delft, The Nethelands
5. Sinha and Enayetullah, 1997, “Waste as resource.” Article in
The Bangladesh Observer, Dhaka, November 21, 2001.
6. ZERO WASTE AMERICA (2010), “The basics of landfills:
How they are constructed and why they fail”, [On Line]
http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/BasicsOfLandfills.htm [7th
March, 11]
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