An approach to quantify the contamination potential of hazardous waste landfill leachate using the leachate pollution index

A significant portion of the hazardous wastes generated by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation end up in landfills. The wastes disposed of in hazardous waste landfills are less biodegradable; thus, the leachate generated due to the physical and chemical changes in the landfill renders high toxicity. If not monitored and handled appropriately, this leachate could lead to contamination affecting human and livestock health and adversely affect the soil and agriculture in the vicinity of the landfill site. A tool to quantify the contamination caused by improper handling of hazardous waste landfill leachate is essential to understand which landfill site would need immediate attention. In the present study, the leachate pollution index is developed based on the predominantly available pollutants in hazardous waste landfill leachate and their toxicity limits. Fuzzy Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process has been used to develop the index. These techniques have been used for screening and assigning weights to the pollutants. Further, sub-index curves have been developed considering the available concentration, the toxicity, and the standard concentration limits for each pollutant. The weighted linear sum function has been used to aggregate the weights and sub-index scores. The hazardous waste landfill leachate pollution index developed in this study can serve as a potential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential. Furthermore, it can be used as a comparison tool for ranking landfill sites based on the contamination potential.

Automated summary

A significant amount of hazardous wastes from rapid industrialisation and urbanisation end up in landfills, which can cause high toxicity through the generation of leachate. This leachate can lead to contamination affecting human and livestock health, as well as soil and agriculture. A pollution index for hazardous waste landfill leachate has been developed in this study, using the Fuzzy Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process to quantify contamination potential and rank landfill sites.