Landfill leachate treatment in Brazil – An overview

Abstract

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) presents an ever increasing and more complex challenge in global terms. The disposal of MSW in landfills generates leachate, a liquid highly polluting to the aquatic environment. This review describes the state-of-the-art approaches to treatments applied to leachate in Brazil, highlighting the new technologies and alternatives that are still in the research phase, and compares the leachate treatment technologies applied around the world with the current scenario in Brazil. In Brazilian landfills, along with other technologies, the biological process is commonly applied, since this is a simple and economical approach and often it is the only technique used in small municipalities. The sanitary landfills in large Brazilian cities located in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, invest in or outsource landfill activities, where apply advanced treatment technologies, such as membrane filtration. The use of membrane filtration technology in these cases reveals similarities with leachate treatments applied in the developed countries of North America and Europe. Brazilian researchers have highlighted the need to use efficient and economically viable technologies for the treatment of leachate in Brazilian landfills. However, the current scenario of MSW management in Brazil shows deficiencies related to the monitoring of sanitary landfills and limited information is available on the performance of leachate treatment systems.