MBT Waste Used as a Capillary Barrier in a Sanitary Landfill

A capillary barrier is an alternative technology for the final cover of sanitary landfills that has been very successfully studied in recent years on several landfills. Its functionality is based on the retention capacity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the materials used. Although a more attractive alternative than the traditional use of geosynthetic materials and clay layers in the construction of the final cover system, a large amount of soil is still required for the capillary barrier, giving rise to the need to find appropriate soils and occupying a large volume in the landfill. A more sustainable solution would be to build the capillary barrier using mechanical biological pre-treated waste (MBT) as building material. This paper presents the results of laboratory tests to evaluate the main factors that influence a capillary barrier built with mechanical biological pre-treated waste.