THE LANDFILL

The landfill is the most popular system of disposal of garbage in Italy : 68% of garbage is dumped in landfills. In the area of Reggio Emilia there are 2 landfills: Rio Riazzone and Poiatica for the disposal of solid urban waste and similar garbage.

RIO RIAZZONE LANDFILL

It can contain about 2 milion cubic metres of garbage. Thanks to a policy aiming at gradually decreasing the dumping of solid waste, its amount has been reduced from 160,000 tons in 1994 to 110,000 tons in 1997, corresponding to about 400 tons a day.

The purpose is to safeguard the province capacity to dispose of garbage and to reduce the traffic of a high number of trucks transporting it to the landfill.

LANDFILL AND ENVIRONMENT

The two main problems related to the landfill use are leachate and biogas.
In the controlled landfill, leachate is collected and sent to depuration plant for specific treatment. Biogas must not be dispersed; it can be collected by means of a network. Only a small percentage of biogas can be recycled into energy.

Click here to see the structure of a landfill.