Evaluation of Field Capacity of Municipal Refuse Dumpsite (a Case Study of University of Maiduguri Dumpsite)

This paper presents the results of an evaluation of Field Capacity of municipal solid waste at the University of Maiduguri dumpsite. The work describes the methodology and the devices designed for the determination of field capacity of municipal solid waste, in which a lysimeter was constructed to simulate the activities within the refuse dumpsite. The method consisted of applying dynamic compaction to a representative sample of rubbish collected from the university waste dumpsite, to simulate three different depths, at 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0m respectively. The experimental results showed that the higher the compaction of the sample, the smaller the amount of water required to satisfy the field capacity and thus to start the leaching process. In other words, field capacity was found to be inversely proportional to the dry field density, with an Optimum value of 0.38L/kg. This is the water holding capacity of the waste per kilogram before leaching commences. The study suggest that, the results can be extrapolated to other landfills with similar characteristics, thus making it possible to design the dimensions of the device required to control the production of leachate with greater accuracy.