| Abstract [eng] |
The Master's thesis analyzes environmental impact of mixed municipal waste landfill before, during and after landfill mining activity. Recently, recovery of materials from landfills has gained growing interest. For this reason, it is important to find out the changes of environmental impact during landfill mining (when landfill cover is removed and methane with other hazardous compounds are released to the atmosphere) and after this activity; also, it is important to determine the possibility of groundwater contamination influenced by resource extraction from landfills. These mentioned issues are important in order to solve reuse question of recovered area easier. One of the main factors limiting the landfill mining is biogas production. Before landfill mining activities methane production should be completed or at least should be reduced to a minimum. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the formation of methane gas prior to landfill mining project. The hypothesis of master’s thesis work – landfill mining method significantly reduces their impacts on the environment. The aim of thesis is to determine the beginning of landfill mining at Alytus regional non-hazardous waste landfill and evaluate environmental impact of landfill transformation. Master thesis consists of the following tasks: 1. to evaluate methane formation in the selected landfill in order to determine potential the beginning of landfill mining. 2. to compare the environmental impact before and after excavation to the surrounding area; 3. to evaluate the risks of landfill mining. Formation and emissions of methane were calculated using first order decay. Environmental impact assessment was performed using the Life Cycle Assessment method. The object discussed in this paper is Alytus regional landfill (old pile and new section). According to the calculations, landfill mining project can be implemented 30 years after landfill closure in the old section and 26 years after closure in the new section. It is estimated, that in analysed landfill mining scenario, formation of methane is reduced 83,0 %, respectively in the old and the new sections. Therefore, global warming potential is reduced respectively. Generally, it can be stated, that the hypothesis of work was confirmed. Landfill mining is beneficial to reduce long-term harmful effects on the environment. However, it is necessary to mitigate the short-term impacts because they are one of the main problems related to landfill mining. Environmental concerns include: biogas emissions, odors and dust, storm water and leachate, hazardous waste and stability of landfill. Master's thesis results were published in the scientific conference \"Chemistry and Chemical Technology 2015”. |
