Evaluating landfill aftercare strategies: A life cycle assessment approach

Abstract

Abstract. This study investigates the potential impacts caused by the loss of active environmental control measures during the aftercare period of landfill management. A combined mechanistic solute flow model and life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was used to evaluate the potential impacts of leachate emissions over a 10,000 year time horizon. A continuum of control loss possibilities occurring at different times and for different durations were investigated for four different basic aftercare scenarios, including a typical aftercare scenario involving a low permeability cap and three accelerated aftercare scenarios involving higher initial infiltration rates. Assuming a 'best case' where control is never lost, the largest potential impacts resulted from the typical aftercare scenario. The maximum difference between potential impacts from the 'best case' and the 'worst case', where control fails at the earliest possible point and is never reinstated, was only a fourfold increase. This highlights potential deficiencies in standard life cycle impact assessment practice, which are discussed. Nevertheless, the results show how the influence of active control loss on the potential impacts of landfilling varies considerably depending on the aftercare strategy used and highlight the importance that leachate treatment efficiencies have upon impacts.

Framework, method and case study for the calculation of end of life for HWL and parameter sensitivity analysis

“…The EOL of HWLs is affected by many factors, such as the anti-aging properties of the material (geomembrane capacity and drainage layer anti-clogging ability) and the concentration of leachate and site factors (vadose zone thickness, permeability coefficient, aquifer thickness, and permeability coefficient) 40,43 . The aging properties of the material are often difficult to control, but the concentration of leachate can be controlled by managing the leaching concentration limits.…”

Quantitative determination of energy potential of refuse derived fuel from the waste recovered from Indian landfill

“…Councils are encouraged to plan and develop systems like source segregation, recycling, and energy recovery to reduce the environmental burden and increase the lifespan of landfill. An important challenge and critical job for councils is also the aftercare management of the closed landfill [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Characteristics and composition of landfill waste, geological and geotechnical properties, topography, climatic conditions and ground water flow conditions play a major role in the development of a management plan for landfill aftercare management.…”

Using life cycle assessment in environmental engineering education

“…This flexibility contributes to the complexity of the tools, so the decision was taken to focus on a single activity. LCA is used in waste management to develop and improve waste management services and dedicated waste management LCA packages are available such as the UK's WRATE (Burnley, Coleman, & Peirce, 2015;Turner, Beaven, & Woodman, 2017), Denmark's EASETECH (Laurent et al, 2014) and the USA's DST (Kaplan, Ranjithan, & Barlaz, 2009). Therefore, waste management was selected for the teaching tool and this also meant that LCA could be taught in the context of an existing topic in most environmental engineering and environmental management programmes.…”