Prospect to practice: field trials of phytoremediation at landfills

Abstract

Human contamination poses environmental concerns at many different levels. One such level is in the waste we generate on a day-to-day basis, waste that usually ends up in a municipal solid waste (MSW) facility for long term storage, well beyond typical human life expectancy. To ensure these MSW’s do not begin to pose environmental risk in the future we must develop ways to assist the Earth in self-cleaning these facilities after humans have closed them and moved on to post closure management. Phytoremediation is one such avenue that would provide a cost effective and eco-friendly approach to assisting in this management. This review looks at several recent phytoremediation projects that have been field applied at landfills around the world in pilot and full scales. Leachate and gas emissions combined to form the major components of landfill contamination, so hence this review will be limited to projects tackling these two contaminants. The author hopes that this review will serve as a guide to landfill workers to get ideas for potential phytoremediation options for their landfill before and after closure.