Significance of Landfills in Modern Waste Management

Landfilling represents by far the oldest way of waste disposal. On a global scale even today the largest fraction of municipal solid waste is still landfilled. In the frame of the present paper the function of landfills in modern waste management is discussed, whereby special focus is given to the European waste hierarchy, which states that landfilling is the least desirable disposal option for waste. The results of the analysis conducted clearly shows that despite the requirements of the EU waste framework directive, landfills will still play an important role in future waste management. This is due to the main functions of landfills, which include the function as a safe sink for hazardous substances and the function as a temporary storage for potential secondary resources.

According to the EU waste framework directive (European Parliament, 2008) member states of the European Union must emphize on the waste hierarchy to ensure that waste is dealt with in the priority order of:
1. prevention;
2. preparing for re-use;
3. recycling;
4. other recovery (for example, energy recovery);
5. disposal.
The waste hierarchy claims, that prevention of waste is more desirable than preparing for re-use, and reuse is again better than recycling, and so on. The most undesirable option is the final disposal of waste, which includes besides the combustion of waste (without energy recovery or with low energy efficiency) landfilling. Hence, only if all other measures (prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery) of waste management are not practicable, landfilling represents the last resort. The idea behind the waste hierarchy is to utilize as much waste as possible in order to substitute primary resources.
The main question that arises out of the waste hierarchy for landfilling is the following: Are landfills still required in future or are they becoming obsolete in a modern sustainable society.
The aim of the present paper is to discuss this question and try to answer it, whereby special focus should be given to the different developmental stage of the national economies of Europe. Thereto the historical role and development of landfills will be evaluated on the one hand, on the other hand the significance of landfilling in the anthropogenic metabolism is investigated.



Copyright: © Thomé-Kozmiensky Verlag GmbH
Quelle: Waste Management, Volume 2 (September 2011)
Seiten: 7
Preis: € 0,00
Autor: Ass. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Johann Fellner
 
 Artikel nach Login kostenfrei anzeigen
 Artikel weiterempfehlen
 Artikel nach Login kommentieren


Login
ASK - Unser Kooperationspartner
 
 

Unsere content-Partner
zum aktuellen Verzeichnis


Unsere 3 aktuellsten Fachartikel

Maßnahmen zur Klimaanpassung sächsischer Talsperren
© Springer Vieweg | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH (5/2025)
Die Landestalsperrenverwaltung des Freistaates Sachsen (LTV) betreibt aktuell insgesamt 87 Stauanlagen, darunter 25 Trinkwassertalsperren. Der Stauanlagenbestand ist historisch gewachsen und wurde für unterschiedliche Zwecke errichtet.

carboliq® - Direktverölung gemischter Kunststoffabfälle
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (4/2025)
Die Forderung nach Klimaneutralität dominiert die globale Diskussion über die Zukunft der Industriegesellschaft. Damit einher geht auch die Frage, wie der Umgang mit Kunststoffen in Zukunft erfolgen wird.

Nutzungskonflikt zwischen Carbon-Capture-Anlagen und Fernwärme?
© Witzenhausen-Institut für Abfall, Umwelt und Energie GmbH (4/2025)
Die EEW Energy from Waste GmbH (EEW) hat sich das Ziel gesetzt, bis 2045 klimaneutral zu werden. Mit 17 Standorten verfügt EEW über eine Verbrennungskapazität von ca. 5 Millionen Tonnen Abfall pro Jahr.