The influence of landfill covers on the generation of leachate

Abstract

World trends in the landfilling of municipal solid waste, and the design of landfill covers are reviewed. Current approaches to solving leachate problems associated with landfills emphasise the use of landfill liners and leachate collection systems.

The installation of liner and leachate treatment systems is expensive. Furthermore, the lives of such systems are likely to be shorter than the time over which the landfill will continue to emit pollutants. The use of landfill covers (which are relatively cheap) to eliminate or minimise leachate production is therefore an attractive proposition. The principle behind using covers to solve leachate problems is their ability to alter the water balance of the landfill. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version]