First Worldwide Regulation on Sustainable Landfilling: Guidelines of the Lombardy Region (Italy)

Abstract

The environmental sustainability principle, since the Rio de Janeiro Conference (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997), has produced a marked change in environmental protection strategies. In waste management practices this trend is reflected in the passage from a linear to a circular approach, where strong attention is paid to the recovery of resources from waste, with a dramatic reduction of untreated waste landfilling. But deposition of waste on soil still plays a crucial role in acting as a final sink for closing materials loop in Circular Economy. Paradoxically the regulations of landfilling at international level appear obsolete, not taking into account the environmental sustainability concept, still promoting unsustainable approaches, with environmental protection measures mainly based on physical barriers, without any consistent control of long term emissions of contaminants which last longer than the barriers themselves. “Guidelines for Sustainable Design and Management of Landfills” issued by the Lombardy Region in 2014 represents the first official regulation which introduced systematically the principle of environmental sustainability. They highlight the modern role of landfilling as a final sink and promote measures and procedures for controlling the mobility of the potential contaminants in the waste, until reaching, within a generation time, a Final Storage Quality in equilibrium with the environment. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and discuss the main aspects introduced by the Guidelines, offering an interesting base for a future spread of the practical application of the sustainability concept to landfilling.

Washing of residues from the circular economy prior to sustainable landfill: Effects on long-term impacts

“…In the second step, column landfill simulation tests were performed to predict and compare the landfill long-term emissions of both washed and raw residues. Collected leachates were analysed to ascertain the accomplishment of the FSQ limits set by Italian Regional Guideline (Cossu et al, 2020b).…”

“…The results were discussed, considering most relevant parameters (COD and ammonia), in view of accomplishing the FSQ limits set by Italian Regional Guideline (Cossu et al, 2020b) considering the landfill sustainability reference time of 30 years.…”

“…Washing treatment was set using the suggested parameters from literature (L/S = 5 L kg −1 , t = 6 hours; Cossu and Lai, 2012), as these operating conditions proved to achieve the best trade-off between the washing efficiency, duration and water consumption of the test in view of the upscaling. Column landfill simulation tests were performed to predict and compare the landfill long-term emissions of both washed and raw residues, in view of accomplishing the FSQ limits set by Italian Regional Guideline (Cossu et al, 2020b). Accordingly, being all selected fraction affected by organics contamination, suitability of washing pretreatment was evaluated.…”