The Engineering and Projects Section of the Department of Cleansing and Solid Waste, DSW, has
recently initiated a research project at the Mariannhill Landfill Site in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal to
measure temperatures at the waste/liner interface and in the waste body. Twenty temperature probes
termed ‘thermocouples’ were placed at ten different points in the newly constructed cell 3-2 prior to
landfilling. Each position was placed with two thermocouples, one at the FML liner/stabilised layer
interface and the second at the stabilised layer/drainage layer interface (figure 1). This paper presents
the in situ temperature behaviour of FML’s both in the valley basal area and on the side slopes.