Paper No.

669

MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN ROAD EMBANKMENT

CONSTRUCTION - A CASE STUDY

Dr. V.G. Havangi1, Dr. A.K. Sinha2, G.S. Parvathi3, Dr. Satish Chandra4

ABSTRACT
Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) in the landfills have become a nuisance affecting significantly the
health, hygiene, sanitation and aesthetics of surrounding area. If these wastes are not properly
disposed off, they can prove perilous and an environmental hazard. It is very important for Engineers
and Environmentalists to adopt sustainable waste management programs. As a part of sustainable
road construction, an attempt was made by CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi to
investigate the possibility of utilizing the Municipal Solid Wastes collected from Ghazipur, East
Delhi as an embankment fill material. About 200 tons of Municipal Solid Waste was collected from
three different locations on the landfill site, based on its age. These materials were dried and then
segregated into different sizes in the existing compost plant. The different fractions were studied
for their suitability for use in embankment construction. A segregation methodology is proposed
in the study which can be adopted in the plant to arrive at a final material for road embankment.
The segregated final MSW is then characterised for its Geotechnical characteristics. Stability
and settlement analysis were carried to arrive at suitable conclusions regarding its feasibility for
embankment construction. It was concluded that about 65-75% of segregated Municipal Solid
wastes can be effectively used for embankment construction.

1. INTRODUCTION created a height of about 40 m. It spreads over an

Rapid growth of population, industrialization
and urbanization during the last few decades
has resulted in generation of huge quantity of
Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) in different cities.
Delhi alone generates about 7000 tons/day of
MSW while the country generates about 1,00,000
MT/day (MOUD, 2000). About 70 % of MSW is
collected and dumped in an open space and the
rest is processed/treated. Ghazipur landfill is one
of the biggest landfill in Delhi and was started in
the year 1984. At present, an average 2500 tons/
day of MSW is being dumped there and this has
area of approximately 3 x 105 m2 near National
Highway-24 close to Hindon canal. The landfill
MSW is very heterogeneous material which
includes: Construction & Demolition waste
(C&D), groceries, food scraps, vegetable remains,
packing materials, paper, remains of used coal, ash,
wood, metals, plastics, ceramics, cloth, glass, etc.
Further, waste from the adjacent poultry market,
fish market, slaughter house, dairy farm and
non-infectious hospital waste have also become
part of the MSW landfill dump. A typical view of
Ghazipur land fill site is shown in Fig. 1.

1
Chief Scientist, GTE, Division
2
Sr. Scientist, GTE, Division, E-mail: sinha.crri@nic.in
3
CSIR - Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi
Scientist, GTE, Division
4
Director

Journal of the indian Roads Congress, July - September, 2017 79