Landscape requalification of landfills: an open issue between legal and technical aspects

Abstract

The functional requalification of a modern landfill over the aftercare phase represents a landscape challenge since, in addition to technical and legal problems (also common to other waste management plants), long-term emissions must be taken into account. In fact, if for plants such as incinerators or composting after the operational phase an environmental recovery can be considered full, safe and healthy usable for the society in a relatively short period of time (1-5 years), for landfills the achievement of a sustainable and stable state of waste may require, a time much longer than that of the post-closure phase even for modern landfills (30 years). This state known as "final storage" refers to the quality reached by emissions and waste in chemical, biological and geological terms when all active control measures can be safely removed and it represents the necessary condition to guarantee the landfill requalification and its return back to the community with a new planned use as natural, recreational, didactic and social ones. Also, principles of landscape planning such as the specific legislation, the costs analysis and the territory analysis must be considered.