Laboratory Investigation into Applicability of Red Sand-Bitumen Mixture as Landfill Liner

Abstract

Liners play an important role in control of contaminant transport to ensure negligible long-term environmental impact. Fill liners have therefore been designed with the requirement to perform as barriers that separate leachate from the groundwater system. Liners have been traditionally designed using clay or geo-membranes and geo-synthetics. However, these traditional methods are becoming increasingly uneconomical and out of reach of most undeveloped countries. Development of innovative barriers and barrier materials is thus essential to provide more sustainable and cost effective solutions. The aim of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using a new mixture of red sand-bitumen, as a landfill liner. The results indicate that the mixture meets the limit value of hydraulic conductivity for waste landfills of 1 × 10-9 m/s and that the mixture has a high potential to be used in landfill applications.