Economic development has pushed environmental concern such as constructing sanitary landfill to a
lower priority due to the low standard of living of the people. As a result non-sanitary landfill with no
engineered technologies is being extensively utilized in developing nations. Consequently, this improper
waste disposal practice will bring about various environmental issues namely environmental degradation
and risks to human health to many developing nations in the world.
Municipal solid wastes (MSW) generally are highly heterogenous in nature that the separation can be
almost impossible [2]. This is occurring in the many parts of the world particularly the developing nations
that the whole of this waste stream will be dumped into disposal sites. As a result, it is necessary to have a
dumping ground to cater the need of disposal within a designated area. In Malaysia approximately 300
disposal sites have been recorded where 111 were mere-open-dumps. Several of these open-dumps have
been closed after the passing of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 due to their
negative impacts to the surrounding area [2]. Without proper lining system, open-dumps can leach out
highly polluting liquid to the adjacent surface water bodies while penetrates through the soil layers into
the groundwater system. Thus, landfilling activities generally pose risk of leachate contaminations to the
aquatic ecosystem.