Final quality of a sustainable landfill and postclosure management

Landfill should be designed and constructed in line with the principle of environmental sustainability, guaranteeing over a period of less than one generation (typically considered 30 years) the environmental equilibrium of Final Storage Quality, when waste stability and immobilisation of contaminants is achieved and all active measures of control may be removed without posing any further risk to the environment. The practical definition of FSQ, when a landfill can be released from aftercare, and a procedure for the technical and administrative termination of the post-closure management phase are an evident regulatory strategic need to assure the design of sustainable landfill. The aim of this paper is to provide a criterion to define the FSQ of landfill, based on the control of the analytical emission parameters and of stability indexes related to the residual emission potential. These should concur with the law’s acceptance criteria for the landfilling of wastes (LAC), and with the legal limit values (LLV) established for the emission of contaminants into the environment. The interrelationship between, stability indexes (emission potential), analytical emission parameters, LAC and LLV is discussed and reference values are provided. Finally, the paper proposes a procedure for the termination of technical and administrative aspects following the post-closure management in accordance with FSQ.