SUPPLEMENTARY STUDIES FOR SUSTAINABLE ELABORATION AND UTILIZATION OF BIOCOVER LAYERS APPLICABLE ON LANDFILLS

Despite the global strive to waste reduction, municipal and other waste streams are generated continuously. Landfills largely are final waste disposal sites, being among the most significant sources of the most impactful greenhouse gas – methane, in terms of global warming heat-trapping potential and other pollutants. Technologies have been developed to collect and utilize landfill gas containing methane; however, residual methane emissions from active and closed landfills remain problematic. Applying biocover layers for landfill covering is suggested as a cost-effective emission and pollutant capture method, but it still needs data-grounded justification for achieving geotechnical and environmental goals. The study presents an integration of existing data in modeling based on the results from previously tested biocover layers at the laboratory scale and in the field, supplemented with up-to-date findings from other related research, performed and processed by our scientific team in Latvia, Estonia, and Poland in collaboration with the American experts. Modeling and life cycle assessment-based evaluation (using SimaPro and other software) of feasibility for various material utilization in biocover layers is especially attributed to the future potential of a fine residual fraction of old landfilled waste constituting up to 60% of all the landfill mass serving as a functional construction material available at the site. Among the favorable outcomes are emission and pollution capture options and the reduction of waste masses and contamination, geotechnical stability provision on site, diminished primary resource consumption, and rehabilitation of ecosystems. Life cycle assessment also indicates environmental burdens in global warming, freshwater and marine ecotoxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity providing a global view of biocover layers geotechnology. Z.Vincevica-Gaile acknowledges BAFF (the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation) for the research scholarship within the project “BioB→BioC: Biobased materials in biocover layers to promote circular economy approach and mitigate environmental impacts of waste” implementation opportunity in the USA.