The environmentally sustainable geological repository: The modern role of landfilling

摘要

The depositing of wastes on the ground, which may go under many names and implicate a wide range of processes, is an undeniable reality, being a mandatory aspect in closing the material cycle (Cossu, 2009). Failure to acknowledge this would be tantamount to denying Lavoisier's Law of mass conservation, without of course involving Einstein in the trivial matter of waste management. There are a number of ways that wastes are deposited on the ground, ranging from the uncontrolled or scarcely controlled landfilling of untreated wastes (such as occurs in developing countries) to sanitary landfilling in countries with a wide availability of land, from landfills for mechanically, biologically or thermally pre-treated wastes to the use of compost in agriculture and the recycling of waste residues in building materials (bricks, concrete, asphalts, aggregates for roads construction, etc.) which ultimately serve as a sort of landfill.