Environmental problems of Iranian landfills at seaside of Caspian Sea

This paper focuses on methods of solids and contained liquids management and as a case study, and evaluates the proposed landfill design in Langerood, a city in north of Iran close to Caspian Sea. In addition, the methods of waste management and disposal, environmental conditions of transport stations, kinds of waste and other influential managing parameters in this region are analysed and several solutions are presented. The amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) collected in the province of Gulan is about 35,000 tonnes/day. This province involves 4% of the total population of Iran and about 0.9% of the area of Iran, while it produces 1.4% of total MSW of Iran. There is no valuable estimation on the amount of waste generated by industrial units. Approximately 90% of MSW are discharged directly into the rivers. In addition to compostable materials, about 14,000 tonnes paper and cardboard, 9,700 tonnes plastic and 2,500 tonnes glass are annually being entered into the MSW of this province. This paper presents specific and general recommendations to enhance the solid waste management in the study region.