36
Geotechnical News December 2011
China’s Initiative for Fundamental
Research on Geoenvironmental Hazards of
Municipal Solid Waste Landfills and
Sustainable Technology
Tony L.T. Zhan, Y.M. Chen, G.W. Wilson,
V. Giang, D.G. Fredlund
On July 10, 2000, a fast moving slope
failure of municipal solid waste was
triggered at the Payatas Landfill,
Quezon City, Philippines. The massive
wasteslide buried over 330 people,
killing at least 278 people. The
following is an eyewitness account of
the devastating effects from the event
as reported by Merry, Kavazanjian and
Fritz (2005).
“At approximately 4:30 a.m. MLT,
a large noise was heard throughout the
area. Many men who were either al-
ready awake or who were awakened by
the noise began to gather and discuss
what the sound was and whether or not
it was safe to go to work that day.
“After considerable discussion, it
was decided that the storms that had
produced torrential rains for the past
ten days had subsided and that it was a
day that they should work. As a group,
they traveled down the steps to cross
the creek. Suddenly, they heard a very
loud noise and when they looked up,
they saw the landfill coming at them
very fast. Many turned to run away
but the steps were narrow and became
clogged with people.
“Mr. Cabahutan says that he was one
of the last in line to go to work and so
when they turned around to run, he and
his son were near the front of the line.
Nevertheless, the waste overcame and
buried them. Fortunately, they were
quickly rescued. He tells that the slide
was followed by a small explosion and
fire, although Mr. Cabahutan did not
know what caused the explosion.
“At this point in the interview, Mr.
Cabahutan was visually shaken and
had difficulty continuing…. He ex-
plained that 100 bodies of men and
children were later recovered at [the
steps]” (p. 104).
North Americans rarely, if ever, per-
ceive municipal landfills to have the
massive scale of potential hazard de-
scribed above. However, many regions
of the world with extremely dense and
growing urban populations along with
limited infrastructure must develop
a different paradigm for the manage-
ment of municipal solid waste. China
is rapidly becoming a world leader in
addressing the need for new directions
and fundamental research in sustain-
able municipal solid waste technolo-
gies.
In 2010, China generated 245 mil-
lion tonnes of municipal solid wastes
(MSW), becoming the world’s larg-
est MSW generator. MSW generation
keeps increasing at an annual rate of
about 7%, and China’s current accu-
mulative quantity of MSW is over six
billion tonnes. Citizens in nearly 400
cities in China face the prospect of
wastes surrounding their city. At pres-
ent, 90.5% of the collected MSW in
China are disposed of in landfills, and
there are over 800 registered landfills
and thousands of unregistered waste
dumps. Landfilling will remain the
dominant disposal method in the fore-
seeable future. However, Chinese mu-
nicipalities face additional challenges
of geoenvironmental hazards emerging
from the current landfill technology,
which threaten the safety and quality
of life of the people living in the cities.
To develop sustainable landfill tech-
nology, the Ministry of Science and
Technology of China has dedicated
35 million RMB (approximately $5.4
million USD) toward fundamental re-
search on the geoenvironmental haz-
ards of MSW landfills. This major re-
search program is a joint undertaking
by eight of China’s leading universities
and scientific institutions, including
Zhejiang University, Tongji Univer-
sity, Tsinghua University, Hohai Uni-
versity, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
China Institute of Water Resources
and Hydropower Research, HKUST
Fok Ying Tung Graduate School and
BGI Engineering Consultant Ltd. The
interdisciplinary research program in-
volves geotechnical engineering, en-
vironmental engineering, groundwater
engineering, engineering mechanics,
and disaster prevention and mitigation
engineering. The Principal Investiga-
tor of the program is Dr. Yunmin Chen
from the MOE Key Laboratory of Soft
Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineer-
ing at Zhejiang University. Details of
