The Value of Daily Cover
In sanitary landfill design and operation, there are Daily, Intermediate and Long term needs of soil cover material , thus from 15 to even 50 centimeters of compacted soil.
The use of 15 cm of compacted soil as daily cover continues to be used extensively today. This layer represents the practical minimum depth that can be placed over solid waste to prevent the emergence of adult flies from landfilled solid waste mass. When implemented properly, this achieves a basic objective of protection of human health and several other beneficial functions as follows:
-Fire Control – 15cm of compacted soil reduces the potential for, and movement of, fires within a landfill.
-Additional Vector Control – 15cm of compacted soil reduces available breeding sites for mosquitoes and discourages solid waste from serving as an attractant to domestic/feral and wild animals.
-Litter Control – 15cm of compacted soil helps to control blowing litter.
-Odor Control – 15cm of compacted soil serves as an odor barrier/or filter for odors emanating from solid waste.
-Aesthetics – 15cm of compacted soil covering at the end of each day working face, improves the aesthetics for site users and neighbors.
-Run-on / Run-off – 15cm of compacted soil serves to reduce the infiltration of storm water run-on into the filled mass of solid waste and helps to increase run-off of precipitation.
-Driving Surface – A minimum of 15cm of compacted soil provides a driving surface for the disposal vehicles to unload.
Still there are and not just e few occasions that there is a complete luck of appropriate soil cover material or it has to transport this from a distance.
In either case the operator have to use excavators & trucks and additional personnel and man hours to cover the working face.
And it isn’t just that . . . . . . . .
"We can help you save money, time and air space."
Use of Soil turns to be a very expensive cover, for a various but also significant reasons.
-Operating costs – When landfill owners/operators do not have sufficient soil on-site for daily cover and must purchase and import cover material, it can represent significant increased operating costs.
Hauling cover from off-site also increases traffic, road wear and tear, increase fuel consumption and increased emissions.
Alternate daily cover materials, which are less expensive than importing soil to a site, could significantly reduce the overall operating costs for landfill operators.
-Value airspace – In many cases to find a location and built a landfill site isn’t a very easy procedure and in many cases this takes many years because of neighbors who doesn’t want this near them.
Always landfill sites are in the business of utilizing space for many reasons.
Even if there is soil on-site, think the lost air space over the total life-time of the landfill site that you could benefit (Cover Ratio), and how less soil is used as a cover that much space can be used for more waste.
Even if there is soil on-site consider why fill your landfill’s valuable space with soil when there is an alterative cover material?
The increasing need to reduce operational costs plus the need to increase the life time of landfill sites led to use advanced materials that could replace or minimize the use of soil as a cover material but also keep up with the environmental needs.
Slurry-based, non-toxic, bio-degradable, and environmentally friendly neutral materials made primarily of food grade polymers and clays, mixed with water and sprayed forms a dry component providing an alternative to soil cover material.
Value of Daily Cover