**8. Industrial waste landfill regulations**

Regulation, as it relates to industrial waste landfills, refers to the directives or rules made and monitored by a government agency in respect of landfill planning, design, operation, and management. The importance of landfill regulation is to achieve the desired overall environmental health outcome and to reduce the negative impact of landfilling on the environment. The government, which is the major player in making and monitoring adherence to landfill regulations, recognizes that for a new landfill facility, environment protection is achieved through a combination of good planning and a thorough approach to design, operation, and management practices [44]. It is the opinion of Ref. [44] that there is no suitable alternative for selecting an appropriate site and adopting current management techniques to protect environmental integrity of the site. In the case of existing landfills, since the chance to select the best site is long gone, government priority is to ensure that the landfill facility is operated in a way that it minimizes environmental impact, and achieves efficient site remediation. For existing landfills, Peck [44] noted that performance-based approach to management of landfills encourages landfill operators to use their initiative to develop solutions suitable to their landfill operations. According to Peck [44], this approach acknowledges that retrospective design and construction techniques of achieving desired environmental outcomes from a landfill operation could put undue burden of costs on the operators, which, in most cases, is passed onto waste generators *via* disposal fees.

Although the government makes landfill regulations, these environmental rules have to be formulated with wide consultations and bargaining between government agencies and the industry; this is called public private partnership (PPP) for industrial waste management [45]. As stated by Wakiyama [46], industry associations that wield a strong influence on their members are selected to be participants in the formulation of regulatory policy. Government agencies depend on these associations' input to provide information and to measure the costs and feasibility of environmental standards [47]. The PPP allows consideration of industry interests and views in the formulation of regulations so that economic costs and consequences of proposed regulations are accounted before they are put into effect [47]. Once regulations are approved after consultation with industry participation, noncompliance is then monitored and sanctioned by government agencies [47]. When seeking to develop a PPP in industrial waste management projects, the landfill host community's environmental peculiarities are to be taken into account. These peculiarities may include considerations for public health, land ownership, economic and social benefits of the landfill, standards, and accountability, among others [48].

There are essentially two areas of environmental protection regulation for landfills and these are landfill planning and operation. The regulation at planning stage involves obtaining approval for a new landfill or an extension of approval for an existing landfill. Issuance of approval by the government requires that the landfill operator provides a detailed explanation of how the new or existing landfill will directly or indirectly impact the local environment in a document called environmental impact statement (EIS) [44]. The government may achieve operational regulation through issuance of waste licenses whose details are set out in a waste management act such as the Waste Minimization and Management Act of 1996 [49]. A license for operating landfills is required depending on the location of the landfill facility and type of waste received [44]. Typical waste license may include the following criteria:

Location criteria: Landfill location is the single most important determinant of the level of environmental risk posed by a landfill and perfect landfill location is the most efficient environmental management tool used to prevent degradation [44]. This regulation criterion sought to determine early on in the selection process, whether a proposed site is subject to environmental constraint or is of environmental value that it should not be considered as a potential landfill site; in other words, whether the proposed site is environmentally sensitive [44]. For protection of host environment, the location criteria set out steps to be taken when selecting a landfill site, with particular emphasis on carrying out topographic, hydrogeological, geological, and meteorological evaluations to determine the appropriateness of the site [44]. Furthermore, a formal EIS is to be prepared and submitted by the landfill operator if a proposed site will be used for disposal of industrial solid wastes that comprise: about 110,000 tons per annum of nonbiodegradable wastes that are likely to cause flooding or negatively impact drainage, more than 1000 tons per annum of sludge and above 198 tons per annum of other wastes; or the proposed site will be located as follows: within 100 meters of wetlands, coastal dune fields, natural water body; in an area of sodic or saline soil, high permeable or wettable soil, acid sulfate laden soil; within a drinking water catchment or an estuary where sea entrance is intermittently open or on a floodplain; and within 250 meters of a residential area not associated with the landfill site or likely to affect the infrastructure of the neighborhood where the landfill is sited as a result of noise, air pollution, visual impact, traffic, or vermin.

Type of waste and quantity criteria: Waste types disposed at a landfill account for the potential pollutants and likely severity of impact on the environment [44]. For a C&DD landfill that receives inert materials such as construction and demolition wastes that have no potentially hazardous characteristics, environmental risks are generally limited to noise, dust, and sediments, which can readily be controlled thus the criterion here specifies that inert waste landfills must not dispose wastes mixed or contaminated with any other material [44]. Industrial solid waste landfill receiving non-hazardous, degradable waste materials is likely to cause air (odour)

#### *Perspective Chapter: Industrial Waste Landfills DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108787*

and soil (leachate) pollutions as major environmental risks and thus, requires careful management [44]. For these landfills, this criterion provides that solid wastes shall contain less than 200 g/ton of hazardous wastes only and that all solid wastes must have an angle of repose above five degrees (5o) and also must not contain free liquids. Hazardous waste landfills pose the most significant environmental management challenges due to their characteristics and huge potential to cause harm. According to this criterion, hazardous waste landfills must only accept wastes classified as hazardous. These wastes must first be tested, treated, and must meet relevant waste acceptance criteria (WAC) before disposal at the landfill [44].

Environmental risks posed by a landfill can also be gauged by the quantity of waste received at the facility. If a landfill is well located and receives small amount of inert solid wastes, such facility will have minimal impact on the environment, but this is not the same with a facility that receives large amount of waste materials [44]. According to the waste type and quantity criteria, inert waste landfills that receive above 20,000 tons of waste per annum will have to be licensed regardless of their location. Also, 5000 tons per annum capacity solid waste landfills are required to be licensed irrespective of their location. But for hazardous waste landfills, they are required to be licensed regardless of the quantity of wastes received or their location; this criterion is in addition to other special requirements that may be stated by the government regulatory agency in the future regarding disposal of hazardous wastes [44].

According to these regulatory schemes, some facilities will not require licensing due to the relatively small amount of waste they receive and their appropriate or remote location, which indicate that they do not pose a significant environmental risk. The government notwithstanding recognized that if these relatively small facilities are not properly managed, localized environmental damage may result. Thus, it is required that operators make annual notifications to government agencies concerning the quantity and type of waste received, location, and ownership details of the landfill facilities [44].
