The Choosing Of A Landfill Site
The Choosing of a Landfill Site
There is currently much debate on the desirability of landfilling particular
wastes, the practicability of alternatives such as waste minimisation or pre-
treatment, the extent of waste pre-treatment required, and of the most
appropriate landfilling strategies for the final residues. This debate is likely
to stimulate significant developments in landfilling methods during the next
decade. Current and proposed landfill techniques are described in this
information sheet.
Types of landfill
Landfill techniques are dependent upon both the type of waste and the landfill
management strategy. A commonly used classification of landfills, according to
waste type only, is described below, together with a classification according to
landfill strategy.
The EU Draft Landfill Directive recognises three main types of landfill:
Hazardous waste landfill
Municipal waste landfill
Inert waste landfill
Similar categories are used in many other parts of the world. In practice, these
categories are not clear-cut. The Draft Directive recognises variants, such as
mono-disposal - where only a single waste type (which may or may not be
hazardous) is deposited - and joint-disposal - where municipal and hazardous
wastes may be co-deposited in order to gain benefit from municipal waste
decomposition processes. The landfilling of hazardous wastes is a contentious
issue and one on which there is not international consensus.
Further complications arise from the difficulty of classifying wastes accurately,
particularly the distinction between 'hazardous'/'non-hazardous' and of ensuring
that 'inert' wastes are genuinely inert. In practice, many wastes described as
'inert' undergo degradation reactions similar to those of municipal solid waste
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