LIFE Project: Green and nature-based solutions for climate-resilient waste infrastructure
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2021 -2024
- Assigned Budget 3.037.758,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Galicia
- Main source of financing LIFE
- Project website Web del proyecto
The GREEN ADAPT project plans to implement a climate adaptation system aimed at improving resilience at landfills.
Climate change is an indisputable reality, and Europe must ensure it is prepared for the disruptions that imminent climate risks may cause. Waste management infrastructure, such as landfills, will be particularly vulnerable to further increases in average temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent extreme weather events, such as droughts, heat waves, and floods.
The risks faced by landfills are high due to their longevity, as they remain active for decades. Indeed, landfills can remain operational for over 140 years, including maintenance and restoration periods. It has been estimated that there were at least 500,000 operational and closed landfills in the EU28. Most of them (around 90%, with an estimated total volume of 30-50 Gm3 of waste) are “unsanitary” and are equipped with only limited protection to control environmental impacts on water, soil, climate, and health.
A number of climate impacts specifically threaten the waste management sector:
- Increased risk of flooding affecting soil stabilization and increasing decomposition rates of infiltrated waste and leachate;
- Reduced water availability for wet processes and site management (particularly during the summer);
- Increased risk of fires and explosions caused by periods of drought and heat waves.
In short, waste management constitutes a major global environmental, economic, and social challenge in the face of climate change, especially given that waste volumes continue to grow faster than the world's population.
- Use of biotechnosols formulated with landfill waste to stabilize soils, preventing landslides caused by extreme rainfall and flooding.
- Combination of innovative treatment wetlands to store and treat leachate and temporarily highly contaminated runoff water.
- Reuse of treated wastewater to mitigate and address the effects of high temperatures from fires or explosions, helping to ensure water availability.
- Recovery of 27,507 tons of waste annually as biotechnosoil.
- Reduction of water pollution: reduction of heavy metal concentrations by 95% and of ammonium compounds and BOD5 by 99%.
- Increased lifespan of landfills by 50%.
- Greater resilience to flooding, avoiding the discharge of 1,065 m3/year of contaminated water.
- Greater resilience to droughts, with 21,300 m3/year of water available to recharge natural waterways.
- Greater resilience to spontaneous fires, with 2,130 m3/year of irrigation water recovered to lower water temperature, reducing freshwater consumption.
- Reduction of CO2 emissions by 116,702 tonnes of CO2e/year.
- Cost savings related to the external treatment of landfill leachate of between 200,000 and 500,000 euros per year.
- Coordinator/entity name: Luz Herrero
Postal address: Rúa Relva 27a - Torneiros, 36410, O Porriño
The project will contribute to the implementation of the EU Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation, the Paris Agreement, and the European Green Deal through a Disaster Risk Reduction strategy, from prevention (identification of hazardous events) to preparedness (increasing resilience to extreme weather events, presence of combustible gases, and water scarcity) to recovery (use of organic waste as soil stabilization and amendment solutions, reuse of treated wastewater) from the impacts of climate change.
- Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste
- AU(AARHUS UNIVERSITET)
- ISLE(Isle Utilities BV), Netherlands,LIMNOS(LIMNOS Company for applied ecology Ltd), Slovenia,XILOGA(XILOGA S.L)
- FACTOR(Factor Ideas Integral Services, S.L.)
- UPC(UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA)
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