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Geoenvironmental Issues in High-Food-Waste-Content Municipal Solid Waste Landfills

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Journal of the Indian Institute of Science Aims and scope

Abstract

The amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) has increased significantly in developing countries. Landfilling is the commonly used treatment for the disposal of MSW. The MSW contains more food waste in developing countries than in developed countries. This work analyzed the degradable components of MSW with different food contents. A theoretical model was introduced to analyze the coupled hydro-mechanical-chemical interactions in the landfilled MSW. The impacts of the degradation on the properties of high-food-waste-content MSW were reviewed, including the compression behavior, strength parameters, and hydraulic conductivity. The major cause of geoenvironmental issues in high-food-waste-content landfills are rapid leachate and landfill gas generation. A practical model for analyzing leachates and gas production was presented. Landfills in China were used as an example to describe engineering measures for leachate drainage and landfill gas collection. These methods proved successful in solving geoenvironmental issues of landfills with high leachate levels. The experiences are useful for engineers who face similar issues with high-food-waste-content landfills in developing countries.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the research Grant (No. 51988101 and 51508504) provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 51988101 and 51508504.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Yunmin Chen, Wenjie Xu, Liangtong Zhan, Han Ke, Jie Hu, He Li & Pengcheng Ma

  2. Center for Hypergravity Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Yunmin Chen, Wenjie Xu, Liangtong Zhan, Han Ke & Junchao Li

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  1. Yunmin Chen
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Contributions

Conceptualization: YC, WX; Methodology: YC, WX, HK, LZ; Formal analysis and investigation: JH, HL, PM, JL; Writing—original draft preparation: YC, WX, JH, HL, PM; Writing—review and editing: YC, WX; Funding acquisition: YC; Resources: YC, WX; Supervision: YC.

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Correspondence to Wenjie Xu.

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Chen, Y., Xu, W., Zhan, L. et al. Geoenvironmental Issues in High-Food-Waste-Content Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. J Indian Inst Sci 101, 603–623 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41745-021-00233-5

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