Complex Risks from Old Urban Waste Landfills: Sustainability Perspective from Iasi, Romania

Abstract

Landfills continue to represent the most frequent managerial practice for municipal solid wastes and an increasing and complex problem globally. In certain countries, a transition to an open society and free market is superimposed on the transition to sustainability, resulting in even higher complexity of management. This paper proposes an approach for problem-structuring of landfills in complex transitions: sustainability or unsustainability of a management approach is determined by a set of sustainability filters that are defined by sets of indicators and prioritized according the systemic concept of sustainability, which says that economy is embedded in society, which is embedded in nature. The writers exercise this approach with an old landfill in Iasi, Romania, and conclude for unsustainability, because the ecological sustainability filter is not successfully passed. Social and economic sustainability filters are also discussed in relation with the ecological sustainability indicators. The described approach allows a coherent, transdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge scattered across various disciplines, a pervasive problem in landfill management. The case study helps distinguish between generally true and contextdependent aspects.

Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution of Agricultural Soil, Irrigation Water, and Vegetables in and Nearby the Cupriferous City of Lubumbashi, (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

“…Another issue under strong criticism in the city of de Lubumbashi is the growing number of poorly managed \landfills, which are potential sources of soil and urban market garden contamination. Very high heavy metal concentrations have been found in the soils of former landfills [20][21][22].…”

Efficacy of Enzymatically Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation in the Retention of Heavy Metal Ions

“…Concentrations of metals in the soil are governed by anthropogenic effects, pedogenic processes, and parent material [36]. Immobilization [37], phytoremediation [38,39], and soil washing [40] methods are adopted to achieve remediation of heavy metals in soils [7,41,42]. Remediation of contaminated soils can be performed using in situ or ex situ methods based on site conditions [4,43].…”

“…Remediation of contaminated soils can be performed using in situ or ex situ methods based on site conditions [4,43]. Landfill management continues to constitute a complex issue and should be examined further [39].…”