Landfills are one of the major sources of methane emissions, a notoriously powerful greenhouse gas. The vast majority of landfills in regions such as Asia and Africa are downright “waste dumps”. These deposits could cause serious environmental problems, ranging from local pollution concerns (health, soil, and water) and land-use restrictions to global impacts in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions.

In Europe, fortunately, most of the still-operational landfills are so-called “sanitary” landfills, which are equipped with state-of-the-art environmental protection and gas-collection systems.

Regards

Thanks for your answer. I totally agree with the necessity of improving the technical and environmental conditions of African and Asian regions. I have also personally seen these catastrophic conditions in South America too. So the question still remains... how could we make profit of all this recycling potential which is currently stored inside these "waste dumps" without putting into risk the environment and the working conditions inside the landfill? Is landfill mining a "technically feasiblel" and economically profitable alternative?

Environmentally sound landfill comprises appropriate liners for the protection of the ground water from contaminated leachate having leachate collection monitoring wells and suitable final cover on which vegetation takes place.The work is done in layers aftwer resource recovery , the primary consolidation,secondary compression and then decomposition. The land fill gas emissions contain CH4,CO2 and oxygen and nitrogen too.

By the term landfill mining we mean excavating the landfill which has already been covered scientifically and completely processed.

Landfill mining should not be promoted as it invites hazards- Landfill gas consists of a mixture of flammable noxious and asphyxiating gases which may be hazardous to the health and safety. Similarly leachate collection may get disturbed and invite trouble of polluting groundwater and surface water supplies.

Thanks for your answer... In fact, I have been reading that landfill mining alternatives are right now being under serious consideration. This position is in frontal confrontation with your comments... I guess we should think and analyze the available options from a more general perspective and not only the economic one...

In some cases, it remains financially more feasible to landfill waste rather than to collect, process and divert waste. Interventions are costly, in general, more costly than the current default landfilling option.

But, let me do this thinking.

We must recycle everything that can be recycled upstream, such as green waste, electronic waste, batteries, glass, paper, part of the plastic, iron, aluminum, and the remaining incinerable fraction is consumed. by cement factories. Burning waste in a cement plant costs only a few tens of dollars instead of a few hundred dollars in an incineration plant, there are far fewer pollutants emitted into the air and the ash is incorporated into the cement. Consequently, there are no more clinkers to store for eternity. Not to mention the fact that for each tonne of waste incinerated, it is a tonne of coal saved and therefore of CO2 which will not be emitted into the atmosphere.

On the other side of the Atlantic, San Francisco has set up a Marshall plan for waste management by setting in California law the objective 100% of waste recycled, in other words, they give themselves the political means to achieve zero waste in landfills.

Regards

Landfill gases have negative effects on the environment and public health, such as the explosive potential of methane and the toxic impacts of VOC´s and H2S. ... Methane gas, siloxanes and H2S released into the air during landfill mining activity should not be neglected either.

Well major emission of methane gas (GHG) which can trap 20 times more heat as compare to CO2. So it will impact the global warming.

Acid mine drainage, toxic gases such as H2S, CO2, NO2 and CH4, water contamination and mine waste in some times contain radiation materials.

One of the main problem is the pollution with heavy metals

I agree with Dr K N Sheth Sir's view on this issue.