The successful demonstration of aerobic landfilling - The potential for a more sustainable solid waste management approach?

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills worldwide are experiencing the conseq uences of conventional landfilling techniques, whereby anaerobic conditions are created within the landfilled waste. Under anaerobic conditions within a landfill site slow stabilization of the waste mass occurs, producing met hane, (an explosive 'green house' gas) and leachate (which can pollute grou ndwater) over long periods of time. As a potential solution, it was demonst rated that the aerobic degradation of MSW within a landfill can significant ly increase the rate of waste decomposition and settlement, decrease the me thane production and leachate leaving the system, and potentially increase the operational life of the site. Readily integrated into the existing land fill infrastructure, this approach can safely and cost-effectively convert a MSW landfill from anaerobic to aerobic degradation processes, thereby eff ectively composting much of the organic portions (one of the potentially po lluting elements in a conventional landfill site) of the waste. This paper summarizes the successful results of two separate aerobic landfill projects located in Georgia (USA) and discusses the potential, economic and environ mental impacts to worldwide solid waste management practices. (C) 2001 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.