This course is designed to provide a fundamental understanding of organic waste stabilization processes in municipal solid waste landfills and an assessment of current practice in implementing, monitoring, and assessing organic waste stability. Organic stability can be viewed as a state of near complete decomposition of organic waste constituents such that human health, environmental, and financial risks associated with undecomposed waste are minimized. Fundamentals of organic waste stabilization will focus on anaerobic biodegradation processes. The state-of-practice discussion will focus on landfill operations and organic stability assessments completed for landfills in the State of Wisconsin.
Upon completion of this course, the attendee will be able to:
- Describe anaerobic biodegradation processes in municipal solid waste landfills
- Understand the biochemical signatures in solid, liquid, and gas monitoring data that are relevant to anaerobic biodegradation
- Understand how landfill gas generation can be used as a metric to quantify organic waste stability as well as nuances in landfill gas collection data and modeling that impact assessment
- Understand the current state-of-practice of organic stability in the State of Wisconsin where landfills must abide with an Organic Stability Rule implemented by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
