Geotechnical News September 2011
29
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
Characteristics of Municipal Solid Wastes
and Landfill Disposal in China
Tony L.T. Zhan, Y.M. Chen, G.W. Wilson and D.G. Fredlund
Introduction
The management of municipal
solid wastes (MSW) is one of the
major problems associated with
rapid urbanization in China. Since
1980, the rapid growth of China’s
urban population has resulted in the
generation of an exceptionally large
amount of MSW (Fig. 1). According
to the World Bank (2005), China
produced 195 million metric tons of
MSW in 2005 and became the world’s
largest generator of MSW. At present,
the annual generation of MSW is 245
million tons with an annual increase
of about 7%. The amount of generated
MSWs in China in 2030 is estimated to
be as much as 480 million tons.
There are four ways in which MSW
is generally disposed (i.e., landfill, in-
cineration, composting, and recovery).
As of 2007, the first nationwide inves-
tigation of pollution sources in China
(MOEP, 2010) indicated that 90.5% of
collected MSW is disposed of in land-
fills, 8.1% is combusted, and less than
2% is composted. There were over
800 landfills in 661 cities in China as
of 2007. These landfills received 150
million tons of MSW. Placing MSW in
landfills will likely remain the dominant
disposal method in China as it is cost-
effective and can accept mixed waste
without requirements for separation.
In the past two decades, landfill
technology and practices in China have
improved significantly due to the en-
actment of a series of new regulations,
policies, and technical standards (Dong,
2009). Landfill technology in most cit-
ies has shifted from simple dumping to
controlled landfilling. However, there
is still a gap between prescribed stan-
dards and engineering practices mainly
due to a lack of financial resources,
research, education, early planning,
site-specific design, and sound landfill
operation practices. The rapid increase
in the volume of MSW has outstripped
service demand. Further developments
in landfill technology are being chal-
lenged by environmental and geoenvi-
ronmental concerns. There have been
issues related to landfill failures, soil
and water pollution, emission of green-
house gas, shortage of land for waste
disposal, and a lack of financial assur-
ance related to closure and post-closure
care. In addition, there have been tech-
nical difficulties associated with the re-
covery of landfill gas and the reuse of
closed landfills.
This article presents the composi-
tion and characteristics of MSW, the
current state of MSW landfills, and the
challenges related to further develop-
ment of landfills in China.
MSW Composition and
Characteristics
An understanding of the composition
and characteristics of MSW is
important for the planning, design, and
operation of landfills. MSW typically
consists of food and vegetable wastes,
paper products, plastics, textiles, wood,
Figure 1. Trend of MSW generation in China from 1990 to 2010 and estimates of
MSW generation up to 2030.
