Kuttanad Clay Amended Laterite as a Landfill Liner for Waste Disposal Facilities

In a developing nation like India, large amount of waste is generated due to human activities. Human health is severely affected by increasing amount of municipal solid waste. One way of disposing the waste is landfilling. An engineered landfill system should contain a bottom liner, a side liner and a cover system. A landfill liner is a low permeable barrier with hydraulic conductivity less than 1x10-7 cm/sec. Landfill liner prevents the migration of leachate into ground water. Traditionally these barriers are constructed using locally available clayey soil. The soil locally available in the landfill site cannot the used as a liner material because of its higher hydraulic conductivity. This study makes an attempt to produce a liner by mixing locally available laterite soil and clay from nearby area. Kuttanad clay is used as an additive to the local laterite soil. The amendment of local laterite soil with Kuttanad clay is carried out for reducing the hydraulic conductivity of the laterite soil to the desirable level. The use of laterite soil can improve the shear strength of the liner compared to using clay as a liner material. In this paper different conditions to be satisfied for a liner are checked by laboratory experiments. The final mix is selected based on the hydraulic conductivity of the liner mix.