29. Scientific Area Calculation of a Landfill in Boragaon Guwahati

From the past, management of municipal solid waste has been a serious environmental issue of concern. Unhealthy waste disposal practises pave a way for air, water, soil and land pollution. Scientific landfills are a great solution for this. Scientific landfills are engineered means of confining waste to a small area and covering it with daily layers of earth and compacting it to reduce its volume. Our paper focuses on an unscientific dumpsite located in the outskirts of Guwahati, Boragaon, that proposes the calculation of area for different heights for the same site in a scientific manner. The calculation is done for a period of 20 years (2019–2038) by finding out the future expected population, per capita waste generated and the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generated for the entire city. The term municipal solid waste for the study area refers to the waste which is obtained from domestic, commercial establishments, hotels, restaurants, parks etc. As per our calculation, the total area available for the landfill site is 88,315.26 \({\mathrm{m}}^{2}\) and as per the guidelines, in India only 30% of the MSW is recycled and the remaining 70% is deposited in the landfill site, which is being followed in our design. In the design adopted, with the values of density, the loose mass and daily compacted volume is calculated. This is then followed by the calculation of the annually compacted volume. The work includes after the deposition of the daily waste, a layer of soil is provided as a cover so as to prevent the odour problems that occur in the landfill. In the method adopted, volume of cover material is taken to be equivalent to 20% of the volume of recently compacted waste. By adding on the values of annually compacted volume and cover material, volume of sanitary landfill is obtained. The total area required is calculated by assuming factor of increase in the additional area required for the access roads, border setback areas, control buildings, sanitary facilities and manoeuvring yards. The factor of increase in the additional area is taken as 25% of the total area to be filled in this case study. The scientific landfill in Boragaon for the 20 years is divided into 4 plots in which each plot is filled within a span of 5 years. The study shows that the proposed area will be filled within the span of first five years and this area is very less as compared to the area for the waste to be accommodated by the year 2038.