Characterization of Leachate and Solid Waste of Dhaka City Corporation Landfill Site for Solid Waste Stabilization

Rapid urbanization of Dhaka city has created immense pressure on its urban services including solid waste disposal. Both city corporations (Dhaka North, DNCC and Dhaka South, DSCC) have been facing tremendous problem to maintain sustainable waste management over the last few decades. At present, the DNCC and DSCC dump 68% of the total solid waste to the sanitary landfill site at Matuail. Decomposed solid waste is a potential source of heavy metals and toxic chemicals that pollute the soil as well as the surrounding water body. For environmental sustainability, it is now essential to reduce the load of decomposed solid waste at landfill site through the conversion of waste into re-usable product. Proper characterization of solid wastes is pre-requisite for efficient management and solid waste stabilization. In this paper, it is therefore aimed to investigate the physical and chemical characteristics of decomposed solid waste and leachate collected from Matuail landfill sites. The average concentrations of Fe, Cu, and Ni in leachate samples collected from treated pond were found to be 19.11mg/l, 0.71mg/l, and 2.5mg/l respectively exceeding Bangladesh standards. The presence of heavy metals in decomposed solid waste was also found to be significant. In order to reduce the scale of pollution it is recommended to stabilize solid waste to use it as a construction material. Physical properties that were analyzed in this study will also be helpful for selecting stabilizing additive for perfect stabilization.