Landfill Impacts on the Environment—Review

Abstract

Waste management (WM) is a demanding undertaking in all countries, with important implications for human health, environmental preservation, sustainability and circular economy. The method of sanitary landfilling for final disposal of waste remains a generally accepted and used method but the available scientific evidence on the waste-related environmental and health effects is not conclusive. Comparative studies of various WM methods (landfilling, incineration, composting etc.) show that among the municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment and disposal technological options, sanitary landfilling or open dumping is popular in most countries because of the relative low cost and low-technical requirement. The European Union (EU) Directive on waste landfills has introduced specific goals for reducing the volume of disposed waste and very strict requirements for landfilling and landfill sites. Evaluation of the impact of landfills on the environment is a crucial topic in the literature and has received increased attention recently, given growing environmental concerns. The main goal of this survey was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of possible impacts of MSW landfills on the environment. The main conclusion of the overall assessment of the literature is that the disposal of MSW in landfills entails a number of environmental risks but with respect to the current situation and rich style of living adopted in industrially developed countries, the idea of WM systems functioning without landfilling—at least in the foreseeable future within one generation—seems to be somewhat unreal. The results also provided important information of landfills as a source of environmental risk. Results of this research may have an important impact on landfill management and the disposal of waste. From the literature review, it is evident that even if high levels of waste avoidance, reuse and recycling are achieved, some waste materials will always need to be forwarded for disposal.

Comparison of technical methods of securing closed landfills in the Czech Republic and Poland

“…The most important tasks of landfill reclamation are to minimize or eliminate the landfill's impact on the water and soil environment, and emissions to the atmosphere (Vaverková, 2019), which can be achieved by using vertical insulation screens (for landfills that do not have an insulated base), tight covering of the landfill, and introducing vegetation to the surface (Koda & Osiński, 2017). Another goal of the site's reclamation is to adapt it to the intended purpose of the area, i.e.…”

“…An important group of waste are household waste and other municipal waste (e.g. household, bulky, office, catering, street waste) (Burlakovs et al, 2017 (Vaverková, 2019). In the second half of the 1990s, the annual volume of waste production ranged between 300-800 kg per capita in developed countries and less than 200 kg per capita in other countries (Ercolano, Gaeta, Ghinoi & Silvestri, 2018).…”

Influence of a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill on the Surrounding Environment: Landfill Vegetation as a Potential Risk of Allergenic Pollen

“…Health and life quality depend primarily on the physical, social, and economic environment in which humans live [59]. The environment is increasingly endangered by human activities such as landfilling [4,60] and there are only a few areas in the world that are not affected by them. The awareness about environmental pollution is increasing on an international scale [61].…”

“…The disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) in landfills entails a number of environmental risks and raises concerns about harmful impacts on human health, e.g., pollution of air, soil, and groundwater, risk of fires and explosions, bad odors, or damage to vegetation [1][2][3][4]. During the landfilling, a wide range of pollutants is released into the environment, especially in to the atmosphere: landfill gases and particular matter (PM).…”

“…Landfill gas emissions contain a large number of compounds of which the most important are methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and various mixtures of pollutants including volatile organic compounds (VOC). PM emissions may have toxic properties as they reflect the chemical composition of the disposed waste [1][2][3][4]. When the landfill use comes to end, important subsequent steps include aftercare, safety assurance, and ecological regeneration.…”