Investigations into the landfill behaviour of raw and treated wastes

Bioreactor landfills (BLFs) basically involve recirculation of leachate in controlled quantities back into the bioreactor landfill to boost biodegradation of municipal solid wastes thereby improving its efficiency. This augmented biodegradation leading to faster and improved stabilization of landfill waste is being showcased by a study on two anaerobic bioreactors. One bioreactor is being loaded with raw wastes having high organic content causing an impediment in the biogas production and biodegradation and on the other hand, there is a bioreactor of same configuration loaded with windrow compost as treated waste having lower polluting potential. An attempt is made to showcase a comparative analysis to investigate the impact of treatment on biodegradation in both raw and treated MSWs. Over a 9–10 month study period which is currently under progress, data from the first 3 months (13 weeks) is presented. Treated wastes have given better results as compared to raw MSW due to lower polluting potential in terms of both leachate quality as well as biogas production. Speculations are being made that treated wastes will give better results for the whole study period in terms of environmental sustainability.