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You want to process the most amount of material at the lowest operating cost, using the least amount of airspace. Choosing the correct equipment for your working face and designing your working face correctly can increase the longevity of your landfill.
By Charlie Nowak

The design and operation of your landfill’s working face can make or break your site. Choosing the correct equipment, taking appropriate safety measures, and implementing an effective design will promote efficiency and landfill longevity. The following covers all of these factors of the working face and why they are important.

Safety is a Priority
The first thing to take into consideration is what safety equipment you have onsite. This is important not only for customers, but also employees as well. Make sure that you have PPE available for customers and employees to wear. In addition, employees should have hearing protection as well as radios to communicate among personnel. Personnel should also clean glass and mirrors on any equipment prior to operating, so there are no distractions.

Your Most Valuable Asset
The most valuable asset at your landfill is airspace. Any equipment that you use out on the working face should be efficient in extending the life of each cell, and, therefore, the total life of the overall landfill. Typical equipment seen at an unloading zone on the working face include tippers, walking floor trucks, commercial trucks, residential customers, and dump trailers. According to Benchmarking the Performance and Costs of MSW Landfills by SWANA, the total cost per acre is $1.2 to $1.5 million dollars.

Design your working face around the average daily tonnage and plan ahead with engineering for a checkerboard design. The working face is the designated area where waste is unloaded. The checkerboard design minimizes the use of daily cover. At the end of each working day, daily cover is put down over the designated section (aka, the working face). The next working day, the neighboring section becomes the working face. This centralizes operations and this method:
• Saves labor time and hauling time (daily cover must be hauled to the working face to be spread)
• Labor, fuel, and material costs
• Less daily cover saves airspace

The Right Machine for the Job
While there are many types of equipment used at the landfill such as track loaders, water trucks, scrapers, or articulated trucks, and backhoe integrated tool carriers, there are three in particular that are used on a constant basis: dozers, landfill compactors, and excavators.
Landfills can vary in many ways, so it is important to choose the right equipment for your landfill. By choosing the correct equipment, you will increase your landfill’s efficiency and profits. Things to consider when choosing equipment include:
• The volume of material your landfill brings in (less volume landfills may use a compactor and track loader only, whereas a larger operation may use all of the pieces of equipment listed above)
• The type of material your landfill brings in (a C&D landfill may require heavy-duty tracks on equipment, such as dozers to move through tougher debris like concrete VS MSW)
• Whether your landfill has a tipper (small landfills without a tipper would not need to invest in a long-reaching excavator)

Dozers
With low operating cost to spread material, dozers push material to compactors in the landfill. They are also efficient in helping to build side slopes. When using a dozer in your operations, choose one based on your average daily traffic. In addition, choose a blade design best suited for your needs and consider low ground pressure design.

Landfill Compactors
As the most important piece of equipment on the working face, landfill compactors maximize the density of waste and optimize the life of each cell. Choose a machine that is the proper weight class for your site. Make sure to spread waste at the proper lift depending on weight class:
• 60,000 lb. class – 12 inches maximum
• 90,000 lb. class – 18 inches maximum
• 120,000 lb. class – 18-24 inches maximum

The greater the PSI, the greater the compaction. Choosing a compactor that achieves the greatest pressure on the trash will give the best density and will use the least amount of airspace.

It is also important to have proper ground clearance to avoid fire hazards and decreased compaction since three to four passes are best for compaction density. In order to help with maximum compaction, keep cleats clean.

Excavators
This type of equipment is best for moving waste from one point to another. They are especially efficient in working with stuck loads on the transfer trailer and working with load articulating trucks. We suggest that they have at least a 40-foot reach and consider using an extreme service bucket. There are center bars in the trailers. Waste will get caught on these bars that need to be removed while the trailer is in the tipper dumping the trash. An excavator with a longer reach will be beneficial in removing waste from these center bars. However, if a landfill does not have a tipper(s), then the longer reaching excavator investment may not be necessary.

Cover Material
Once you have gotten the most airspace out of a landfill cell, look at which cover solution will be best for the area. Daily cover is material placed on the surface to prevent waste from blowing trash, help reduce odors, lower fire risk, and scavenging from vectors (pests/animals). These could include soils, alternative daily covers, tarps, and spray foams.

End Results
Ultimately, you want to process the most amount of material at the lowest operating cost, using the least amount of airspace. Choosing the correct equipment for your working face and designing your working face correctly can increase the longevity of your landfill by reducing airspace (more profit and better sustainability), lowering your operating costs (increases profit), and aiding in a smoother operation and efficiency (customers unloading will be more organized). | WA

Charlie Nowak is a North American TANA Sales Representative at Humdinger Equipment. Humdinger Equipment is the North American distributor for TANA. Charlie has extensive experience in all phases of solid waste. He began working in the waste industry as a teenager and has worn many hats, including operating equipment, surveying landfills, water sampling, engineering landfill design, managing landfill operations and transfer stations, and consulting for hauling and landfills. He can be reached at (806) 473-7371 or e-mail [email protected].