Study of solid waste management at Ghazipur landfill site with respect to leachate and heavy metal removal using ion exchange process

Abstract

India, one of the most populous and rapidly growing countries, is facing a paramount problem of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal and management. The generation and management of MSW has become a grave concern in the developing countries including India. It has been identified that the population explosion, increase of lifestyle standard, advancement in technologies, and development of enhanced commercial activities in non-sustainable manner leads to the generation of enormous amount of MSW. Such excessive MSW generation causes major management issues to the municipal authorities as well as threat to the society and the environment. Unfortunately in India, open landfill has been considered as the most common, easy and cheapest way for disposal of such huge amount of MSW. It leads to contamination of groundwater by heavy metals and other organic compounds present in leachate. The consumption of such contaminated groundwater by communities may result in severe health hazards and sometimes be fatal if consumed for prolonged periods. Therefore, leachate characterization and its treatment are essential to know the contamination potential and requirement of proper treatment before the final disposal options. Keeping in view the above facts, the present research work was carried out in and around the Ghazipur Landfill Site situated at East Delhi, India to investigate its adverse impacts on nearby groundwater quality. Twenty groundwater samples and leachate samples were collected and studied during pre monsoon and post monsoon seasons for two consecutive years (2016-2017 and 2017-2018). The groundwater samples were collected within 2 km radius of the landfill site (from the periphery of . newline