What is meant by leachate recirculation?
Leachate recirculation is defined in Environment Agency guidance LFTGN03 as: ‘the practice of returning leachate to the landfill from which it has been abstracted’ (Environment Agency 2004). Within the context of this review, the definition has been expanded to include the introduction of any liquids into a landfill.
How is landfill leachate generated?
Leachate is produced when water filters downward through a landfill, picking up dissolved materials from the decomposing wastes. Depending on characteristics of the landfill and the wastes it contains, the leachate may be relatively harmless or extremely toxic.
What happens to landfill leachate?
Leachate management
In older landfills and those with no membrane between the waste and the underlying geology, leachate is free to leave the waste and flow directly into the groundwater. In such cases, high concentrations of leachate are often found in nearby springs and flushes.
What is landfill leachate?
Landfill leachate is a high organic matter and ammonium nitrogen strength wastewater formed as a result of percolation of rain-water and moisture through waste in landfills.
How leachate movement is controlled?
Leachate can be controlled in lined landfills with leachate collection and storage systems. These systems typically include provisions for the drainage of leachate within the landfill and pumping the leachate to storage tanks. The stored leachate can then be trucked or pumped to a wastewater treatment plant.
How do you manage landfill leachate?
Once the leachate has been collected and removed from the landfill, it must undergo some type of treatment and disposal. The most common methods of managing leachate are: Discharge to sewage treatment works. On-site treatment followed by discharge; and • Recirculation back into the landfill.
What is leachate and how is it controlled in a landfill?
How can we reduce landfill leachate?
How to Reduce Leachate Generation?
- Stormwater management pond location.
- Limit run-on/run-in.
- Grade control to promote runoff.
- Limit size of working face.
- Cover material selection and application.
- Exposed geomembrane.
- Swale liners.
- Limit stormwater retention time on/above the waste.
What are the uses of landfill leachate?
Leachate recirculation enhances waste decomposition, increases landfill gas yield, and accelerates air space recovery. Cost-benefit analyses of leachate recirculation indicate that the practice has a small positive effect—about $0.005 per gallon.
How can we prevent landfill leachate?
How can we control landfill leachate?
What is leachate and how is it controlled?
Leachate refers to the liquid, contaminated water, that results from the interaction between any water in a landfill, e.g., as the result of rainwater infiltration, and the waste emplaced in the landfill. Leachate constitutes one of the major environmental and health risks associated with landfills.