SOLID AND HAZARDOUS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
(BNA 31003)
CHAPTER 8: SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE
DISPOSAL
ASSOC. PROF. DR. MIMI SULIZA MUHAMAD
TOPICS OVERVIEW
8.1 Waste Disposal Strategies
8.1.1 Landfill
8.1.2 Surface Impoundments
8.1.3 Deep Well Injection
Waste Disposal Strategies
❑Landfill: is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is
the oldest form of waste disposal. Waste is directly dumped into
mining voids or borrow pits before it is compacted and covered with
soil. Gases generated by the decomposing waste materials are often
burnt to generate power. Special landfills with stricter regulations
are used for hazardous waste.
❑Surface impoundments: Ponds lined with plastic and clay where
liquid hazardous waste evaporates, leaving residue.
❑Deep-well injection: Hazardous waste is pumped deep
underground into porous and stable rock formations, away from
aquifers.
SANITARY LANDFILLS
➢Land disposal site employing an engineered method of disposing of solid wastes in a manner that minimizes
environmental hazards by spreading the solid wastes to the smallest practical volume and applying and
compacting cover material at the end of operation of each day.
➢Uses a clay liner to isolate the trash from the environment.
➢The waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe.
➢It is considered safe when it has completely degraded biologically, chemically, and physically.
➢Sanitary landfills use technology to contain the waste and prevent the leaching out of potentially hazardous
substances.
➢ Advantages :
- Landfill site is a cheap waste disposal option.
- The gases given off by the landfill site could be collected and used for generating power.
- Lots of different types of waste can be disposed of by landfill in comparison to other waste disposal method.
➢ Disadvantages :
-Landfill releases harmful gases that contribute to the global warming.
-Landfills can pollute air, water and also the soil.
-Landfills emit a very strong, unpleasant odor.
METHOD OF LANDFILLING
1. TRENCH METHOD - consists of an excavated trench into which the solid wastes are
spread, compacted and covered. This method is best suited for nearly level land
where the water table is not near the surface.
2. AREA METHOD - is best suited for flat or gently sloping areas where some land
depressions may exist. The wastes are spread, compacted and then covered.
3. RAMP METHOD - It is also known as depression method. The slope or ramp is
sometimes used in combination with the other two methods. The wastes are
spread on an existing slope, compacted and covered.
Sanitary Landfill-Site selection consideration
1. Public Opinion/opposition
2. Proximity of major roadways
3. Speed Limits
4. Load limits on roadways
5. Bridge capacities
6. Traffic patterns and congestion
7. Haul distance (time)
8. Hydrology
9. Availability of cover material
10. Climate (e.g. floods, mud slides, snow)
11. Buffer areas around the site (e.g. high trees on site perimeter)
12. Operation duration for at least 5 years
13. Ultimate use of completed landfill
Liner
•Purpose – to provide a barrier to minimize migration of contaminants.
•No liner is 100% effective. All liners leak – detailed studies of landfill liner systems
built with the best available technology and construction quality control indicated
that expected leakage from the primary liner is about 22 gal/acre/day.
•Leachate results from a combination of direct precipitation infiltrating through
landfill material and any liquid squeezed out of landfill waste materials as a result
of consolidation.
•At the base, leachate first passes through a filter zone (geotextile and/or well-
graded sand and gravel through which the particulates are filtered out).
•A geogrid may also be included to provide additional structural stability.
Liner in disposal method
Primary barrier layer
•The primary barrier layer underlies the entirety of the primary
leachate collection zone.
•The primary barrier layer must be a synthetic material known as
geomembrane or flexible membrane layer (FML).
•A geomembrane is a polymeric membrane that constitutes a
flexible, watertight material with a thickness of one-half
millimeter or more.
Secondary leachate collection zone
•Also known as leak detection system
•Functions just as the same as the primary leachate collection
system and underlies the primary barrier layer
•Handles reduced quantity of leachate
•Beneath the secondary leachate collection system is the
secondary barrier layer which prevents downward flow of
contaminants and allowing the secondary collection system to
collect the leachate.
Leakage
▪EPA defines the action leakage rate as the maximum design flow
rate that the leak detection system can remove without the fluid
head on the bottom liner exceeding 30 cm (1 ft).
▪If the action leakage rate is exceeded, response actions must be
taken.
Secured landfill
❑Hazardous wastes must be deposited in so-called secure landfills, which provide at
least 3 metres (10 feet) of separation between the bottom of the landfill and the
underlying bedrock or groundwater table.
❑A secure hazardous waste landfill must have two impermeable liners
and leachate collection systems.
❑The double leachate collection system consists of a network of perforated pipes
placed above each liner.
❑The upper system prevents the accumulation of leachate trapped in the fill, and the
lower serves as a backup.
❑Collected leachate is pumped to a treatment plant in order to reduce the amount of
leachate in the fill and minimize the potential for environmental damage, an
impermeable cap or cover is placed over a finished landfill.
Secured landfill
Waste Disposal
•Kualiti Alam's disposal facility, the secure landfill began operation at its first
cell in March 1997.
•Waste can only be deposited in the landfill after fullfilling landfill acceptance
criteria.
•The parameters comprise heavy metals, oil and grease and total organic
carbon.
•One of the tests to determine the criteria is the TCLP test. Kualiti Alam has
land reserve to build a total of 8 landfill cells.
Surface impoundments
Surface impoundments are natural or man-
made ponds, pits, or lagoons that is lined
with liner and used by industries for
temporary storage, treatment and disposal
of liquid hazardous waste.
It is not ideal for permanent storage as waste
may overflow, blow out, vaporize, or leak.
Surface impoundments Trade-Offs
Deep well injection
▪Deep well injection is a liquid waste disposal technology that uses injection wells to place treated or
untreated liquid waste into geologic formations that have no potential to allow migration of
contaminants into potential potable water aquifers.
▪A typical injection well consists of concentric pipes, which extend several thousand feet down from the
surface level into highly saline, permeable injection zones that are confined vertically by impermeable
strata.
▪The outermost pipe or surface casing, extends below the base of any underground sources of drinking
water (USDW) and is cemented back to the surface to prevent contamination of the USDW.
▪Directly inside the surface casing is a long string casing that extends to and sometimes into the
injection zone.
Hazardous waste: Deep-well injection
Seems a good idea, but is
not without risk:
Waste can leak out
into groundwater.
Deep well injection (cont..)
•This casing is filled in with cement all the way back to the surface in order to seal off
the injected waste from the formations above the injection zone back to the surface.
•The casing provides a seal between the wastes in the injection zone and the upper
formations.
•The waste is injected through the injection tubing inside the long string casing either
through perforations in the long string or in the open hole below the bottom of the
long string.
•The space between the string casing and the injection tube, called the annulus, is
filled with an inert, pressurized fluid, and is sealed at the bottom by a removable
packer preventing injected wastewater from backing up into the annulus.
Design of a hazardous waste disposal well
•Liquid hazardous waste has been and continues to be disposed of in deep wells.
•This technique has placed the materials in well-confined geological formations far below the earth’s
surface.
•With proper planning, injection well disposal may not present an unreasonable risk to human health and
environment.
•The hazardous materials that have been injected into these geological formations remain securely in place
unless they are disturbed or migrate.
•The injected wastes undergo chemical reactions both between waste constituents and the formation
materials.
•Reactions include carbonate dissolution in limestone and dolomite, sand dissolution, clay dissolution,
hydrolysis and coprecipitation.
•However, it is difficult to predict with certainty the extent of unreacted waste and the nature because
these reactions occur deep in the bedrock formation.
EPA has established 5 classifications for underground injection of liquid wastes :
Class Uses
I - Used by generators of hazardous waste or operators of hazardous waste management facilities to inject
fluids into a formation beneath the lowermost formation containing and underground source of drinking
water within one quarter mile of the well bore.
- The walls should be cased and cemented to prevent the movement of fluids into or between underground
sources of drinking water.
- Hazardous waste will be pumped into limestone or sandstone formation 2000 ft or more beneath the
earth’s surface.
II - Used to inject fluids that have been brought in the course of conventional oil or natural gas production.
- Also used for enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas and for storage hydrocarbons that are liquids at
standard temperature and pressure.
III - Used to inject fluids for the extraction of minerals, including mining of sulfur, on-site production of uranium
or other metals.
IV - Used by generators of hazardous or radioactive waste to inject hazardous or radioactive waste into.
V - Injection wells are those not identified in classes I, II, III or IV.
Deep-well Trade Offs
THE END