ABSTRACT
One of the more important parameters for waste treatment studies is the characterization of the substrates. In the case of a waste site, inactive or not, substrates for treatment processes can be the solid wastes buried, the leachate or the gas if the treatment approach proposes to examine amelioration of natural effects. Review of these substrates in order to select representative characteristics is thus useful to analyses. In many waste decomposition studies, the solid wastes are treated as a single substrate, with bulk kinetic factors determined from laboratory or pilot scale studies. Recent solid waste composition studies provide a more accurate description of the types of materials likely to be disposed and amounts — thus, disposed solid wastes can possibly be addressed as more than a single substrate once individual waste types are sufficiently defined.
