Magnetic properties and heavy metal content of sanitary leachate sludge in two landfill sites near Bandung, Indonesia

Magnetic properties and heavy metal content of landfill leachate sludge samples from two municipal solid waste disposal sites near Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, and their correlation with heavy metals are studied in the present work. Leachate was found to be sufficiently magnetic with mass-specific magnetic susceptibility that varies from 64.8 to 349.0 × 10⁻⁸ m³ kg⁻¹. It is, however, less magnetic than the soils around the landfill sites. The magnetic minerals are predominantly pseudo-single domain and multidomain magnetite. Leachate samples from the older but inactive disposal site, Jelekong, are found to be more magnetic than that from Sarimukti, the younger and active site. The enhancement of leachate due to the soil-derived ferrimagnetic particles is possibly the same for both Sarimukti and Jelekong. The fact that strong correlation between magnetic parameters and heavy metals is observed in Jelekong but is absent in Sarimukti suggests that the use of magnetic measurement as a proxy measurement for heavy metal content in leachate is plausible provided that the magnetic susceptibility exceeds certain threshold value. Moreover, the accumulation of magnetic minerals and heavy metals in leachate might depend on the activity and the age of landfill site.