Case Study on Slope Failure of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

The waste disposed in MSW (municipal solid waste) landfill consists of material in different shapes with various physical and chemical properties. The engineering properties of waste change with time and make it a challenging task to correctly predict and analyze the long-term deformation and stability of solid waste landfills. The strength of waste usually decreases with time and affects stability of landfill whereas most of the engineered earth fills are more stable with time. The stability of solid waste landfills is most likely jeopardized by excessive fill of waste when lack of proper management. A slope failure case of an old MSW landfill is introduced and analyzed with respect to different phases of filling and operation history to illustrate the stability hazard from uncalculated excessive fill. A parametric study on strength of waste and underlying native soil is also presented.