The daily cover on an operational
landfill site is the layer of
compressed soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt
Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty.
Common types of dirt include:
* Debri ...
or earth which is laid on top of a days deposition of
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
. Benefits of using daily cover include:
* Reduction of odor and air emissions
* Control of
disease vectors (birds, insects, and rodents)
* Improved surface stability for landfill vehicles
* Control of litter
* Reduction of
leachate generation (cover reduces infiltration of rainwater and runoff into the waste mass)
* Fire prevention (cover reduces contact of combustible materials with air and ignition sources, and can act as a temporary
firebreak
A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebre ...
)
Work at the
Fresno Sanitary Landfill was instrumental in establishing the need and utility of daily cover.
Federal regulations in the United States require a minimum of six (6) inches of daily cover to be used at the end of each day.
While soils are the traditional materials employed in daily cover, alternative daily cover (ADC) options such as "green waste", mixtures of paper sludge,
tire derived aggregate (TDA) and
geosynthetic membrane
Geosynthetics are synthetic products used to stabilize terrain. They are generally polymeric products used to solve civil engineering problems. This includes eight main product categories: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geosyntheti ...
s have displayed mechanical characteristics desirable for daily cover. When compared to traditional soil layers, the paper sludge paste was 2–3 times lighter, at least two orders of magnitude more impermeable, and comparable in shear strength.
[Ng, Kelvin T, Irene M Lo, and Irene M Lo. 2007. Mechanical Behaviors of a Synthetic Paste of Tire Chips and Paper Sludge in MSW Landfill Daily Cover Applications. Canadian Geotechnical Journal. 44, no. 8: 928-941.]
See also
*
Biogas
Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...
*
Landfill
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Final cover
Final cover is a multilayered system of various materials which are primarily used to reduce the amount of storm water that will enter a landfill after closing. Proper final cover systems will also minimize the surface water on the liner system, ...
References
Landfill
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