Affiliation:
1. National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology � ECOIND
Abstract
One of the main challenges in treating landfill leachate through membranes is managing the resulting concentrate. Depending on the membrane installation's performance and the stored waste's characteristics, significant quantities of concentrate may remain after leachate treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to identify an optimal disposal or treatment method for it. In the European Union List of Waste, the membrane concentrates are associated with leachates and are classified as either hazardous or non-hazardous waste and assigns them "mirror entries" codes: 19 07 02* or 19 07 03. Consequently, it is crucial to evaluate their hazardousness for proper management. If the concentrate is non-hazardous, it can be recirculated to the waste deposit under certain conditions. However, legislation only permits the storage of solid waste or sludge from the treatment plant with humidity less than 60%. The paper refers to the characterization and evaluation of the hazardous properties of three liquid wastes, known as membrane concentrates, from treating municipal waste deposits leachates by reverse osmosis. In this study, the concentrations obtained for the main indicators in the three concentrates were found to be within the following ranges: ammonium (620 - 1120 mg/L); chlorides (12114 - 21349 mg/L); dissolved organic carbon (4270 - 10450 mg/L); total dissolved solids (60840 - 81000 mg/L). Reporting these concentrations to the limits imposed on the hazardous properties HP1-HP15, the wastes fall under code 19 07 03, related to nonhazardous waste. Even if the treatment facility would handle the treatment of a more polluted leachate resulting as concentrate is recirculated to the landfill, according to the legislation, due to the high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, the three wastes cannot be eliminated on the waste deposits.