Landfilling 101 (Ew. Gross..)

There is nothing quite like off-roading in a bus. I highly recommend it. Today we traveled to Ecoserdiana Landfill, to the north of Cagliari. The gates were nestled between two hillsides, rising well above the road. Shrubs and wildflowers and dried grass covered them, and they were framed by the surrounding countryside.

The two female engineers get on the bus, and immediately point out that the two hills are closed landfills, one from 2000 and the other from 2012. The first was opened in 1980 as one of the first sanitary landfills in the area. Originally it was not fitted with pipes to collect the methane gas produced by the organic components of the municipal solid waste, so in the 1990s it was retrofitted with the necessary requirement to collect the biogas.

This landfill is currently equipped to handle industrial waste, some types of hazardous waste, and bottom ash from waste to energy incinerators. Most landfills in Sardinia are no longer allowed to accept municipal solid waste. Because of this, Ecoserdiana faces a challenge in their future. Without organic waste, new landfills will not produce near enough biogas to keep their biogas combustion to energy plants running. As a result, Ecoserdiana has begun research into implementing an anaerobic digestion plant on site, and has already installed a small solar farm.

 

The current functioning landfill takes up a relatively vast area. Because of the composition of the waste the landfill accepts, the waste was almost entirely soot, ash, and chunks of construction waste. Surprisingly not much of a smell. This particular landfill is built over an old MSW landfill, and as such the top vents have to be built up with the rising waste. They are closed now, so only the biogas from the bottom vents makes it to the energy plant.

Sometimes this dialogue surprises me. This subject is not my forte; in fact it is so far our of my wheelhouse sometimes I feel as if I am swinging at air. However, every once in a while, if I squint, or look down, I find something you don't get to see everyday: hope.