ABSTRACT
The production of solid waste is an inevitable consequence
of human life, and since the industrial revolution the dis-
posal of these wastes has become an increasingly pressing
problem. As an improvement over open dumps, sanitary
landfills were first constructed during the 1930s and
1940s.[1] Today, landfills are highly engineered contain-
ment systems and serve as the primary method of disposing
of refuse, or municipal solid waste (MSW), in the United
States. Waste deposited in the landfill is isolated from
groundwater by landfill liners (Fig. 1), and a cap prevents
the infiltration of rainwater, thus minimizing the produc-
tion of leachate (water that passes through the MSW trans-
porting soluble contaminants). This “dry-tomb” concept of
landfilling fails to take advantage of the potential to utilize
the landfill as a treatment system for MSW. In such low-
moisture environments, microorganisms are unable to
degrade components of MSW. Eventually, without
ongoing maintenance, the final caps of these landfills can
fail, allowing the infiltration of water and initiating decom-
position of the refuse. Under these conditions, the degrada-
tion of refuse is uncontrolled and usually results in releases
of leachate and gas into the environment that pose a poten-
tially serious threat to human and environmental health.
