Strategic options for sustainable landfilling and leachate treatment - a survey and discussion of state-of-the-art in Sweden
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15626/Eco-Tech.2003.019Abstract
Even if landfilling has become the least prioritised waste option, it cannot be neglected
since it will likely last many decades ahead. The potential environmental impact of old as
well as new landfills will remain even longer and has to be considered from a
sustainability point of view in the sense that future generations shall not inherit
environmental problems because of today's landfilling. The choice of leachate treatment
contributes in this respect. Five landfilling strategies may be focused in terms of
sustainability: instant containment, storage under water, flushing, aerobic on-site
stabilisation, and landfill mining. They rely on methods like co-treatment with sewage, or
different setups of nature-like or more advanced treatment systems. Though solutions
seldom are perfect, it is likely that we still can develop better and more consistent
strategies and methods, promoting consensus on how to move forwards. For a rational
choice, it is very important to compare the outcome of all landfilling strategies and
leachate treatment methods by estimating benefits and costs of different options. This
includes consideration of the cost of various environmental effects and resource
depletion, as well as of different measures for environmental protection, remediation and
resource conservation. The result is an estimation of the contribution to the environmental
debt burden that has to be eliminated to fulfil sustainability. The alternative with the best
net outcome in this direction shall be chosen. Much of the knowledge for such
calculations, in terms of modelling, input data, and evaluation criteria, is however
insufficient or subject to disagreement. That is why it is easy to question the Swedish
policy of treating leachates in local systems instead of in sewage works. A proposal to
enable the funding of basal remaining research tasks is to create large PPP (Private Public
Partnership) formations, aiming at identification of optimal overall strategies and method
combinations for landfilling and leachate treatment.
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