Water and Element Balances of Municipal Solid Waste Landfills

Abstract

A major problem of sanitary landfills is the assessment of element transfers from inputs to outputs as a function of time. The prediction of gas and leachate generation is necessary for this purpose. Water and element balances for the non-metals carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, phosphorus, sulfur and chlorine and the metals iron, copper, zinc, cadmium, mercury and lead were investigated in four municipal solid waste landfills of various ages. Data from these mass balances were then used to develop a method that permits elucidation of the behaviour of landfill in its most active phase, i.e. that in which relatively high gas generation occurs.