Landfill operating systems and leachate treatment: Review

In comparison with several municipal solid waste (MSW) eliminating measures ( such as: incineration and composting) landfilling is the most common one, as estimates represents 52, 90 and 95% of urban wastes are disposed through landfill sites, respectively, in Korea, Poland and Taiwan. Landfills would planned and designed to isolate solid waste material by burial in order to decrease human health hazards. Sustainable landfill operation and its leachate treatment is extremely important due to prevent landfill leachate from providing serious environmental impacts. This paper is a review of landfill operating systems (aerobic, semi-aerobic and anaerobic) and landfill leachate production, characterization and treatment methods (1. Conventional treatment 2. Biological treatment 3.New treatments). Effects of each operation systems on landfill leachate quality like: antibiotic resistance are given. Benefits and hurdles of the various treatments are also discussed and considering the increasingly stringent discharge standards we are proposing to understand each treatment process efficiency.