The degradation processes of municipal solid waste in landfills: two case studies for plastic waste and biodegradable waste

Abstract

Land disposal remains the predominant solid waste management method for municipal solid waste (MSW) globally. For inert MSW constituents, there is little information about their properties in disposal sites to support proper recovery. For biodegradable MSW constituents, existing models with fixed default values could not accurately estimate their degradation rate, considering the effect of climate change. Two case studies were conducted to address these concerns. (1) Plastics, as a representative inert constituent after 10-year degradation experiments, were characterized holistically. The degradation was only confined to the surfaces even when the plastics were in the blend of active microbial activities. This study also presents the first series of correlations between plastic property changes and landfill operating conditions. (2) This study analyzed 180+ sets of field and experimental data worldwide and developed a more reliable model for predicting waste decay rate (k), which involves climate change and waste composition influence.