The replacement of mineral layers – such as compacted clay liners, or aggregate layers for rainwater collection – with geosynthetics, such as geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) or geosynthetic drainage composites (GDCs), can significantly reduce the overall thickness of the final cover of a landfill.
This is an important advantage, especially for the inclined slopes, because the thickness reduction can result in several benefits.
First of all, less use of natural mineral materials means less emission of the CO2 resulting from the extraction, delivery and handling of such materials, as well as making a contribution to conserving these natural resources.
Secondly, the reduction in thickness of the landfill-cover system (e.g. 1 cm GCL instead of 50 cm of compacted clay, or 1 cm GDC instead of 30 cm aggregate) increases the landfill storage capacity.
