SAFE LAND FILLING

LANDFILL:-
A landfill site (also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump or dumping ground and historically as a midden)
is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment.
Historically, landfills have been the most common method of organized waste disposal and remain so in
many places around the world. Some landfills are also used for waste management purposes, such as
the temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or processing of waste material (sorting, treatment, or
recycling).

IMPACT:-
Landfills may cause a number of problems. Damage can include infrastructure disruption, such as
damage to access roads by heavy vehicles. Pollution of the local environment may occur as well, such as
contamination of groundwater or aquifers by leakage or sinkholes or soil contamination. Pollution of local
roads and water courses from wheels on vehicles when they leave the landfill can be significant and can
be mitigated by wheel washing systems. Methane generated by decaying organic wastes may occur may
be released to the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon
dioxide, and can itself be a danger to inhabitants of an area. Landfills may become a reservoir of disease
organisms and disease vectors such as rats and flies, particularly from improperly operated landfills,
which are more common in developing countries. Other issues include injuries to wildlife and nuisance
problems such as dust, odor, vermin, and noise pollution and reduced local property values.
Though offsite impacts of landfills are of primary concern to regulators, the status of the resident microbial
community in a landfill may determine the efficiency with which natural attenuation of contaminants
proceeds on site. For example, Gomez et al. (2011) showed that bacterial diversity, including diversity of
pollutant degraders was variable within a major landfill site in Medellin, Columbia and was related to the
level of contamination within a particular zone.
Some local authorities have found it difficult to locate new landfills. Communities may charge a fee or levy
to discourage waste and/or recover the costs of site operations. Many landfills are publicly funded, but
some are commercial businesses, operated for profit.

TYPES:-
Sanitary landfills: - landfill that uses a clay liner to isolate the trash from the environment.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills: - Uses a synthetic (plastic) liner to isolate the trash from
the environment.
Construction and demolition waste landfills: - Consist of the debris generated during the
construction, renovation, and demolition of buildings, roads, and bridges.
Industrial Waste Landfills- nonhazardous solid waste consists of nonhazardous waste
associated with manufacturing and other industrial activities.

Is sludge difficult to dispose of because it is noncombustible?
Yes, the reason sludge is so difficult to work with is because it is noncombustible, and it has a high
moisture content. !

Soil Conditioning or Fertilizer: Sewage sludge contains many elements essential to plant life,
such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and in addition, at least traces of minor nutrients which are
considered more or less indispensable for plant growth, such as boron, calcium, copper, iron,
magnesium, manganese, sulfur, and zinc. In fact, sometimes these trace elements are found in
concentrations, perhaps from industrial wastes, which may be detrimental. The sludge humus, besides
furnishing plant food, benefits the soil by increasing the water holding capacity and improving the tilth,
thus making possible the working of heavy soils into satisfactory seed beds. It also reduces soil erosion.

METHODS FOR SAFE LAND FILLING
Area Fill Method:-
The area fill method, sometimes known as the progressive slope or ramp method, involves construction of
successive cells of waste that are compacted against a slope. Waste is typically off-loaded either on
undisturbed ground or on a prepared tipping pad. Wastes are then pushed uphill onto a starter berm or
sloped bank in lifts and then compacted. Over a typical operating day, wastes are placed, compacted,
trimmed and covered with soil. This daily accumulation of wastes is referred to as a cell. Area fills are
usually located in moderately rolling topography or in large pits, ravines or canyons if cover material
sources are readily available. Cover material for the operation is usually obtained from previously
constructed stockpiles; off-site borrow areas or adjacent areas of higher elevation (cut areas). The area
fill method is illustrated in Figure 1A-1.
Typical Operating Techniques for the Area Fill Are:-
Construct a starter berm or sloped bank.
Construct a liner and leachate collection system as required.
Deposit refuse at bottom of slope for best compaction and control of blowing litter.
Spread and compact refuse against slope of previous lift, progressing horizontally along slope.
Cover with earth from adjacent area or off-site borrow area.
Cover final lift to a minimum depth of 2 feet (6" daily cover + 12" intermediate Cover + 6" final
cover, or 24" compacted final cover).
Continue using progressive slope.
Advantages:-
Does not require excavation of trenches
Useful in areas where the terrain may be unsuitable for trench operations
Can accommodate high traffic volumes since the working face is not limited by the size of an
excavation
Disadvantages:-
Cover material may have to be imported.
Potential exists for greater litter problems.
Larger overall area/volume ratio (greater amount of landfill surface area used per volume of
waste deposited) may result in higher costs.
Topographic control not as obvious as for trench operation.
DESIGN OPERATION:- The cell is the basic building block of a sanitary landfill. To build a cell, waste is
spread into two-ft layers or less and compacted in thin layers as tightly as practical. At the end of the day,
a sufficient amount of cover earth (usually six in.) is spread over waste and compacted. Sometimes an
alternative material is approved for daily cover. This may include foam, plastic, or processed landscape
waste. The compacted waste and soil constitute a cell. A series of cells that adjoin each other make up a
lift. One or more lifts constitute a fill. There are no hard and fast rules for cell height. While four to eight ft
is common, landfills handling 250 tons a day or less may have cells less than half this height. Make the
width (working face) in front of the cell as narrow as possible to concentrate compaction efforts and
reduce cover material requirements. It must be wide enough to prevent congestion of trucks waiting to
unload. A typical face ranges from 100 to 250 ft wide.

ESTIMATE COVER:- Although landfill size and type vary, a rule of thumb for estimating the amount of
cover material needed is one bank cu yd of cover material for every eight cu yd of in place compacted
waste. Historically, about 20 to 25 percent of a sanitary landfills volume consists of soil used for cover
(including daily and final covering). On smaller landfills, soil could be as high as 50 percent to meet
reasonable cover requirements. Currently, well-run landfills have reduced soil cover to levels less than 20
percent of the landfill volume. Cover material also figures in the landfill space requirement. For example,
an area providing 2,000,000 cu yd of landfill space provides only 1,750,000cu ydof refuse when the 8:1
ratio of refuse to cover is achieved. Necessary cover material will require 250,000 cu yd of available
space. The type of cover material is important. If the soil is sandy or highly abrasive, a rubber-tired wheel
loader or scraper might be used rather than a track-type machine. In a few instances, when satisfactory
soil is unavailable or cost-prohibitive, foam is used as daily cover (if permissible). However, soil is
normally still required for intermediate and final cover.
AREA METHOD:-
The area method is best-suited for sites where no natural slopes exist. This method can be adapted,
however, to ravines, valleys, quarries, or old surface mines. Disposing of waste in a ravine site requires
construction of diversion ditches for runoff water before any waste is received. Here is how the area
method works: Waste is pushed into layers, compacted, and adequately covered. During succeeding
days, the incoming waste is dumped at the toe of the preceding days waste and pushed up the face,
compacted, and covered at the end of each working day. A machine, such as a track-type tractor or
landfill compactor, spreads and compacts the material. Soil for daily cover must be hauled in from
borrows sites using a wheel tractor-scraper or articulated truck. The above mentioned method is not that
effective so we will use another method that is trench method