Glossary
- Documentation
- The documentation required when disposing of hazardous waste loads at a landfill. This can come in a number of forms, including hazardous manifesto sheets, loading/substance/handling/identity dockets, or special waste applications.
- Engineered liner
- An impermeable membrane which is laid down under engineered landfill sites. The membrane prevents leachate permeating down into the underlying aquifers or nearby rivers.
- Hazardous substances
- These include, but are not limited to, any substance defined in section 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 as a hazardous substance.
- Hazardous wastes
- Materials that are flammable, explosive, oxidising, corrosive, toxic, ecotoxic, radioactive or infectious. Examples include solvents and cleaning fluids, medical waste, unused agricultural chemicals, and many industrial wastes.
- Landfill
- An area used for the controlled disposal of solid waste.
- Leachate
- The liquid produced from water percolating through a landfill. It is composed of water, and organic and inorganic chemicals from the decomposition of waste. In the early years of operation the leachate also contains a lot of rainwater.
- Leachate treatment
- Leachate is often polluted, so it must be treated before it can be passed into the environment. Landfill leachate is often treated at wastewater treatment plants or settling ponds.
- Liquid waste
- Waste generated in, or converted to, a liquid form for disposal. It includes point and non-point source discharges, stormwater and wastewater.
- NIMBY
- An acronym of Not In My Back Yard, which describes the phenomenon whereby residents oppose the development of a landfill as inappropriate for their local area.
- Organic waste
- This includes garden waste (more commonly known as “green waste”), food scraps, biosolids and commercial organic wastes such as paunch grass and food-processing waste. It can sometimes include other wastes that may biodegrade in landfill, such as paper, cardboard and untreated wood.
- Recycling
- Recycling describes the action of the consumer when collecting and depositing materials that can be recycled (e.g. glass, plastic containers and bottles, aluminium and steel cans, paper and card) and the action of industry when reprocessing recycled materials.
- Solid waste
- All waste generated as a solid or converted to a solid for disposal. It includes paper, plastic, glass, metal, electronic goods, furnishings and organic wastes.
- Stormwater
- Stormwater results from rainwater runoff that is channelled through drains from roads and urban properties into waterways and the sea.
- Underlying material
- The matter beneath the landfill. Its composition determines how permeable it is. Landfills are better placed on low-permeable underlying material to minimise the potential for liquids to migrate out of the landfill.
- Waste
- The New Zealand Waste Strategy defines waste as any material - solid, liquid or gas - that is unwanted and/or unvalued and discarded or discharged.
- Waste disposal
- The final placement of material (solid, liquid or gas) that is unwanted and/or unvalued and discarded or discharged.
