Area landfills conjure up so many negative feelings for a lot of people — the odor, the litter — it’s no wonder so many communities are struggling to find new locations for them. Working to create a better environment and improve community perceptions, University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers are investigating ways to remediate gas emission pollution from landfills by using an innovative ground covering system and analyzing its community impact.
A university collaboration led by Jongwan Eun, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Yunwoo Nam, associate professor of community and regional planning, started three years ago with a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The team’s goal was to test a new landfill ground covering system made from a co-extruded geomembrane with an ethylene vinyl-alcohol layer sandwiched between two inner, low-density polyethylene layers. This new system has been tested against traditional covering systems consisting of low-density polyethylene and no covering at all in recent field tests.
