Landfills catch fire during summers?

Recently, the Brahmapuram plant landfill located in Kochi caught fire and toxic fumes were seen spreading from the site.

● Why do landfills catch fire during summer?

✅Solid wastes collected and accumulated at landfill sites are mainly made of

✅Biodegradable material (60%),

✅Non-biodegradable content (25%)

✅Inert materials (15%) such as silt and stone.

✅Municipalities in India are required to process the wet and dry waste separately and must also ensure that the recovered by-products are recycled.

✅However, the rate of processing of waste in the country is very low compared to the rate of waste generation.

✅Thus, the unprocessed waste remains accumulated in open sewage plants or landfills for an extended period of time.

✅Such sewage plants or landfills sites also consist of openly disposed waste which includes flammable material with relatively high calorific value (about 2,500-3,000 kcal/kg).

✅During summer months, biodegradable material composts faster which increases the temperature beyond 70-80°C.

✅This higher temperature along with the flammable materials such as low-quality plastics, rags and clothes causes the landfills to catch fire.

● Impact of landfill fires:

✅Landfill fires will have a direct impact on the life of workers of facilities and people living close to such sites as toxic gasses such as dioxins, furans, and polychlorinated biphenyls are emitted.

✅Exposure to the toxic fumes can cause large-scale throat pain, headache and eye allergy and other respiratory problems.

✅Instances of landfill fires also impact the ambient air quality due to the emission of various hazardous air pollutants.

✅Landfill fires also result in the emission of harmful pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3).

● Immediate measures to prevent landfill fires:

✅Measures must be undertaken to divide the site into smaller blocks based on the nature and type of the waste.

✅Blocks with fresh waste must

be separated from blocks with flammable material.

✅Drain or soil bunds can be used to separate each block, as this reduces the chance of fires spreading across the blocks.

✅The blocks or portions which consist of plastics and cloth are the most vulnerable part of the landfill and hence these portions must be capped with soil.

✅The fresh-waste materials should be provided enough moisture by sprinkling water and they should be turned regularly for aeration as this process helps cool the waste.

✅landfill operator must classify incoming waste on arrival at the site and dispose such waste in the designated blocks.

✅Non-recyclable and non-biodegradable wastes are to be segregated and sent to the cement kilns instead of collecting and accumulating such wastes in the landfill sites.

✅Efforts must also be made to clear the dry grass and dry tree materials from the site if any.

● Possible long term or permanent solutions:

✅Capping the landfill materials completely using soil, and closing landfills in a scientific manner.

✅Clearing the heaps of waste through bioremediation, which is a process of detoxifying contaminants present in the sludge through biological means.

✅Segregating flammable refuse-derived fuel (RDF) such as plastics, rags, clothes, etc. from biodegradable material by using automated sieving machines.

✅Sending the segregated RDF material to cement kilns which can be used as fuel, and distributing the biodegradable soil to farmers which can enrich their soil.

● Conclusion:

✅However, implementing such a solution takes over two to three years of time.

✅Formulating stringent Solid Waste Management Policies, which emphasises on decentralised waste treatment, reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery of waste phase-by-phase.

✅Ensuring that cities have a systematic waste-processing system in place where wet and dry wastes are processed separately and their byproducts are treated accordingly.