17.1 INTRODUCTION17.1.1 Definition
The term ‘landfill’ is used herein to describe a unit operation for finaldisposal of ‘Municipal Solid Waste’ on land, designed and constructed with theobjective of minimum impact to the environment by incorporating eight essentialcomponents described in Section 17.3. This term encompasses other terms such as‘secured landfill’ and ‘engineered landfills’ which are also sometimes applied tomunicipal solid waste (MSW) disposal units.The term ‘landfill’ can be treated as synonymous to ‘sanitary landfill’ of Municipal Solid Waste, only if the latter is designed on the principle of wastecontainment and is characterised by the presence of a liner and leachate collectionsystem to prevent ground water contamination. The term ‘sanitary’ landfill hasbeen extensively used in the past to describe MSW disposal units constructed onthe basis of ‘dump and cover’ but with no protection against ground waterpollution. Such landfills do not fall under the term ‘municipal solid wastelandfills’ as used in this chapter.
17.1.2 Landfilling of Municipal Solid Waste
(a) Landfilling will be done for the following types of waste:(i) Comingled waste (mixed waste) not found suitable for wasteprocessing;(ii) Pre-processing and post-processing rejects from waste processingsites;(iii) Non-hazardous waste not being processed or recycled.(b) Landfilling will usually not be done for the following waste streams in themunicipal solid waste:(i) Biowaste/garden waste;(ii) Dry recyclables.