IMPACT OF LIMING OF WASTE ON LANDFILL ACTIVITY AND LEACHATE CHARACTERISTICS - A LABORATORY AND FIELD-SCALE APPROACH

The liming of waste is supposed to stop biodegradation and reduce the impacts of landfilling activity. The efficiency of liming was tested b oth in laboratory conditions and in field-scale conditions. The leacha tes of reconstituted waste in lysimeters in laboratory conditions were followed during forty weeks, and two field-scale lysimeters filled wi th raw waste were followed during two years. The results show that lim e does not stop the biodegradation of raw waste and the leachates prod uced by the limed waste exhibit the same microbiological and physico-c hemical characteristics as the leachates produced by the reference was te. Nevertheless, when lime is applied to waste with a granulometry un der two centimetres, the biodegradation is stopped as long as the alka linization is effective. The conclusion is that the liming process in the case of raw waste is not appropriate and can only be used in the c ase of industrial crushed or organic waste with a granulometry of unde r few centimetres in diameter.