Potential use of waste rubber shreds in drainage layer of landfills - An experimental study

Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of waste rubber shreds in leachate collection layer of engineered landfills. The study found that waste rubber shreds layer in combination with a gravel layer can be of potential use in landfill drainage system. To study the performance, conventional gravel along with waste rubber shreds were used in different combinations (with total layer thickness = 500 mm) as leachate collection media. For the laboratory study poly vinyl chloride (PVC) pipes were used. The size range of waste rubber shreds used were 25 mm to 75 mm in length and width = 10 to 20 mm. The gravel size used in the leachate collection media is 10 mm to 20 mm size. Performance study of 7 Test Cols. with different combinations of waste rubber shreds and gravel bed thickness were studied to find out the best combination. The study found that the Test Col.-3 having waste rubber shreds thickness = 200 mm and gravel layer thickness = 300 mm gave the best results in terms of percentage removal in various physicochemical parameters present in the leachate. Further to find the best size rubber shreds three more Test Cols 8, 9 and 10 were constructed having the rubber shreds and gravel layer ratio same as that of Test Col.-3 but having rubber shreds width = 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm respectively. Based on the results obtained using Test Cols. 8, 9 and 10 the study found that smaller size rubber shreds gave bests results in terms of improvement in various leachate parameters.