Sustainable reclamation of landfill sites

Abstract

The most common form of municipal waste disposal in the EU continues to be landfilling, from which leachate could seriously contaminate ground water aquifers that serve as drinking water sources. Constructed wetland is considered as a sustainable option as it facilitates water recycling in landfill sites using closed loop technology. In Slovenia constructed wetlands have been successfully developed and there are already 6 landfills that have been remediated using this technique. An innovative co‐natural approach that has been applied on the landfill site at Ormoz (1.5ha), allows a landfill site to become a bioreactor by permitting controlled infiltration. Leachate is purified using a constructed wetland covering 1,000m². The average hydraulic load is 12m³/d. Purified water will then be recycled through an underground irrigation system to fast growing trees. We assume that this solution will allow rapid stabilisation of the landfill site as the infiltrated water in the landfill site stimulates microbes to mineralise organic waste. There is no risk of leaks as the root systems of trees follow the non‐uniform settling of waste. Owing to the closed hydrological and pollution cycle, the impact on the environment and especially the risk of water contamination will be reduced.

Citation

Bulc, T., Ferfila, N. and Vrhovšek, D. (2004), "Sustainable reclamation of landfill sites", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 55-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777830410513612