Visit a Landfill in 2012 – A New Year’s Resolution for All Wasters!

Waste Appreciation : Visit A Landfill in 2012

Hello ! Happy New Year!

What about this to contribute to your list of New Year's Resolutions? I was convinced that I might pass on the contents of the e-mail below which might interest you and came from a reader, who wrote about how he went to a landfill for the first time in his life, in 2011. It was quite a cathartic experience for him:

The pleasant news is, it only took one quick trip to the landfill, for me to come to my senses and make changes about the way In which I do things and about the way In which I think.

If we aren’t thinking worldwide when talking about waste, and what we are leaving behind, we aren’t being smart. Grab some youngsters, or some forty-somethings and take yourself on a field expedition that may, do for you what it probably did for me ; make the changes that are necessary for me to see what the grim reality of our situation is and change the way In which I do things.

I suspect that there has to be many individuals who, like him, have busy lives, and before 2011, never gave waste disposal a lot of thought. Naturally I am really not recommending that you climb over a fence to go to a landfill. Most big and well run landfills presently supply a resource centre where college youngsters are educated about waste control and recycling during college trips, and a short telephone call to the landfill office before you leave should ensure you can select a timet when the facility will be open. Such facilities are customarily found at an easy to visit position on the landfill where there's also a landfill viewing point and the staff will often be available to reply to any questions you will have.

Whether or not the landfill does or doesn't have a visitor resource centre, in my previous experience the staff, (if given satisfactory notice) will probably be pleased to meet any local resident and show them around their landfill for 30 minutes. In reality as residents we will do a lot to help our landfill operators to maintain the best standards by doing this. Keeping a landfill clean is difficult work, it is way more rewarding if those doing it also feel the community cares about their landfill, instead of only ever just moaning when for some reason things go badly.

Hence how's that for a New Year's Resolution? Make that trip to a landfill! It could be quite an "eye opener" just as it was for our reader. Who knows, you may even come back impressed if areas of the landfill have been well revived.

Visit the original blog at, for the full story:

Visit a Landfill in 2012 – A New Year’s Resolution for All Wasters!

Leachate Quality from Landfilled MBT Waste

In recent times there's been a trend towards MSW leachates from Sanitary Landfills internationally getting more similar nonetheless, as Mechanical Biological Treatment is increasingly implemented and more Mechnanically Sorted Organic Residues [also called "residual waste"] is produced in the supply area for a rubbish heap, so that the leachate quality of the rubbish heap will change. 

If you were hoping to learn of a major decrease in the polluting potential of leachate produced from MSOR, from the bulk of sources, then this paper will dissatisfy you. That's clear from the source for this info, which is the work done by a UK research team during 2005, which was financed by the United Kingdom Environment Agency. The only really pleasant news is that typically, though not always, for all of the sources analyzed by Robinson, Knox, Bone, and Picken ; longer composting ( as an element of MBT processes ) did cut back the potential of the leachate produced. Sadly, hard COD values weren't found to have been reduced by MBT processing, and allegedly might be 2 to 4 times stronger than for equivalent leachate from MSW landfills, which should be a significant concern for the environment, and comprise high leachate treatment costs. Such leachates are also described as continuing for ; "at least several decades".

The sole consistent advantage reported is that leachate from MBT / MSOR wastes placed in methanogenic landfills don't reach the tops seen in Sanitary Landfills for non-pretreated MSW, in the first acetogenic stage. Hence the on-site or off-site treatment of the leachate may be simpler to achieve. Additionally, when effective MBT processes are applied, these can reduce concentrations of trace organics, and of Ammoniacal-N in leachates.

See the full article at:

Leachate Quality from Landfilled MBT Waste

Anaerobic Digestion News: Renewables Have No Prospect of Becoming Economical...

Anaerobic Digestion News: Renewables Have No Prospect of Becoming Economical...: Believe it or not, that headline is a direct quote from a new report from the right wing Adam Smith Institute, titled " Renewable Energy: V...

Leachate Pollution Risk May be Dismissed Too Soon in No Toxic Dam Danger Article

There appears to be a lack of knowledge of leachate contaminant dangers apparent in the following "No toxic dam danger? " article we have quaoted below. If the dam is significantly leachate contaminated then the ammonia present from leachate contamination is the most persistent and dnagerous, and it won't be removed at all by adding chlorine which is it appears, seen here as a disinfectant.

Has anyone tested the water for ammoniacal nitrogen concentration - apparently not - or landfill leachate contamination would show its presence, and at times only less than 5 mg/l will cause fish kills. Why disinfect - as the dead fish will raise the bacteria concentration in the watercourse back again. Read the article extract below:

HIBISCUS Coast Municipality has denied that its Oatlands landfill site in Ramsgate is “a disaster waiting to happen” after high levels of contamination were found in in the stormwater and leachate dams.

Yandisa Mhlamvu, waste management officer for the landfill site, told a media briefing, held yesterday especially to allay residents’ fears, that the municipality is treating both dams in isolation.

The municipality has contracted Ngcolosi Consulting Engineers to reduce the level of the leachate dam.

“Currently we have temporary pump system to cascade the water into the landfill site to keep the levels low. Ngcolosi Consulting has been contracted to put in a permanent pump, which is also part of the long-term solution.”

A senior civil engineer with Ngcolosi, William Tarume, said the project would be completed in the next six to eight weeks.
“Physical work on the site will start next week. We do not have a final cost of the project, but we have a rough estimate of between R700,000 and R800,000 at the moment.”

Mhlamvu said the pump was not installed during the construction of the leachate dam in 2009 due to financial constraints.
“The pump was to be added at the next phase of the project, which we are at now.” She pointed out that the leachate dam cannot be completely drained. “The dam has to have some water in it to protect the surface material of the dam from exposure”

She said treatment on the stormwater contamination dam started with 62 kilograms of chlorine added on Friday. The water will be tested today to see if the level of pollution has decreased to acceptable and legal levels for controlled releases to be made.

The departments of Water Affairs and Forestry and Agriculture will also have to okay the release. Mhlamvu said the municipality is confident that the treatment will be successful, but it has an alternative treatment if it the chlorine does not kill the bacteria. “We have other options for waste water treatment like membrane technology to make use of.”

Acting director for operations Mandla Mabece said the municipality wants to be totally transparent.

“We have nothing to hide and we want our end user to know that everything is under control.

“We are taking the situation very seriously. We do not want to compromise the quality of life of our residents or the tourists who visit us.”

View the original article here

Leachate Clean Up at a Closed Landfill - Success Announced

Don't you often get tired of the long succession of bad news stories throughout the media? Well at the "Leachate Blog" we are delighted to bring some good news for  change! The follwoing is a quote form the original article whioch appeared recently in the Little Falls Evening Times.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently reclassified the Rose Valley Landfill site as a Class 4 site on the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites. The result is that Rose Valley Landfill site no longer considered to present threat says the Little Falls Evening Times.

As a Class 4 site, the property is no longer considered to present a significant threat to public health and/or the environment.
The site is in the town of Russia, on a parcel of land between Rose Valley, Bromley and Military roads. Finch Brook runs along the side of the property. It is currently owned by the Estate of Gerald Crouch and Joyce Miller. Crouch was the owner-operator of the Rose Valley Landfill from 1963 to 1985, the time it was a hazardous waste disposal site. As a result, the site was added to the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites as a Class 2 site in 1992. In 1998, the site was added to the State Superfund Program.
The DEC was concerned about levels of 1,1,1, TCA, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (TCA) and 1-1-Dichloroethane in the soil and groundwater. The levels of these contaminants are unknown.

Tne well from a nearby residence was contaminated. A new well was drilled in 2006 and was still uncontaminated in 2009.
Remediation of the site was finished in spring 2008. It included consolidating contaminated soil on-site and placing it beneath a soil cap and erecting a fence to restrict access to the landfill.

A long-term monitoring program exists for the site which includes the collection and treatment of groundwater and leachate (water that carries in solution materials from the soil it has passed through). The site management plan and environmental easement addressed the remaining site contamination.

View the original article here