A Simple Index Value for Waste Mechanical Behaviour

Significant advances have been made during the past two decades in the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of municipal solid waste, however challenges remain in improving the knowledge base and most importantly, in disseminating such knowledge to engineering practitioners. Large post-closure deformations have been observed in landfills, often interfering with buried infrastructure such as that used to collect landfill gas. Slope failures in landfills have been observed in all continents, in some cases with significant loss of life. Accumulating experience suggests that there are a limited number of key factors that govern the mechanical behaviour of landfilled waste masses. Since the effect of each individual factor is relatively predictable, it is proposed by the author that a quantitative index value be developed for comparison of the behaviour of different waste masses.