Turning Landfills Into Valuable Assets

Chances are, when you leave your garbage at the curb for pickup, you don’t give it another thought.

But the trouble is that 70 per cent of the waste we produce – and each of us produces on average 1.1 kilograms of it every single day – ends up in a landfill. The result is that landfills are becoming a huge and growing environmental problem, not just here in Ontario, but worldwide.

“It can take more than 50 years for the contents of a conventional landfill to be completely broken down,” says Dr. Leta Fernandes, a professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Ottawa.  “While that’s happening, there’s the constant concern that the water running through the landfill, called leachate, could drain into the water table and pollute neighbouring bodies of water.  As well, while the waste is decomposing, methane gas is being produced and released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

“And, of course, landfills also take up valuable space that could be put to better use.”

Is there a better way of designing landfills? Absolutely, says Dr. Fernandes. She’s leading a team of researchers who are developing a system that de-contaminates waste in a fraction of the time it currently takes and, in the process, puts the by-products to productive use.

“We’ve already validated our BioReactor system on a pilot scale,“ says Dr. Fernandes. “Now, we’re going to be doing it on a large scale at the Laflèche Eco-Industrial Park in Moose Creek, Ontario.”

The $3 million project is funded in part by the Ministry of Research and Innovation’s Research Excellence program. If it’s successful – and Dr. Fernandes is convinced it will be – it’s a system that could be exported globally, putting Ontario at the forefront of waste disposal technology.

How does the BioReactor system work? The outer layers of the BioReactor are made of clay and a geotextile membrane to make it watertight. The leachate is then collected and recycled to irrigate the waste, accelerating decomposition by microbes, and eliminating the hazard to groundwater. At the same time, methane gas production is increased and the gas is collected to provide energy to neighbouring homes and businesses.

“It’s a beautifully simple system,” says Dr. Fernandes, “and it has the potential to deal much more efficiently and effectively with the increasing volumes of solid waste being generated by our cities.”

Brain King, President of Laflèche Environmental Inc., agrees. His company is a leader in environmentally responsible waste management and it’s partnering with Dr. Fernandes on the research.

“By enabling Dr. Fernandes and her team to test new technologies as they develop them in a real-world application, we expect to both improve the system and dramatically collapse the time-to-market for it,” he says.