Impacts of Solid Waste Landfilling on Hong Kong Environment

ME1D01: Engineering and Environmental Management

with English Writing Requirements

Impacts of Solid Waste Landfilling
 on Hong Kong Environment

Table of Content

1. List of Tables/ Figures
2. Report Body

1. Introduction
2. Formation of landfill gas and leachate

1. Landfill gas formation
2. Leachate formation

1. Environmental Impacts

3.1 Fire and explosion hazards

3.2 Groundwater pollution

3.3 Vegetation damage

3.4 Air pollution

3.5 Global warming

 4. Solutions to impacts brought by solid waste landfills

      4.1 Landfill gas control

      4.2 Leachate control

 5. Summary and conclusions

1. References

I. List of Tables/ Figures

    Table 1. Landfill Gas Composition

[pic 1]

   Table 2. Chemical composition of leachate from municipal solid waste

[pic 2]

II. Report Body

1. Introduction

Landfill is one of the most widely adopted methods for solid waste disposal around the globe, so does Hong Kong. Like many other developed cities, the amount of wastes generated in Hong Kong has grown exponentially as its economy grown. Municipal wastes have been increasing dramatically since 1986 in which the Hong Kong economy started to thrive. In 2009 alone, 6.5 million tonnes of trash were generated, in which 49% of the dumps were recycled and the rest were disposed to landfills (EPD,2014).

There are mainly three sources of municipal solid waste in Hong Kong. The first category is the domestic solid waste, which is from individual households and public places including waste collected from trash bins, residential apartments, marine areas and also country parks. The second category is the commercial solid waste which derived from shops, offices, restaurants and hotels etc. The third category is the industrial solid waste which is generated by all industries, yet excluding construction and demolition waste, chemical waste or other special waste (EPD,2014).