Say Hello! to Johanna and Emma

We asked Emma and Johanna what they are going to do in Moldova this spring and this is their answer

Closing a landfill in Moldova
We are two students in Environmental Engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, LTH, who will be writing our master thesis this spring. Our speciality is Environmental Systems and we have among other things taken a course in waste management, which caught our interest.

The aim of our thesis is to come up with recommendations on how the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, should close their landfill. The goal of this work is to present a pre-study to a final closing plan. The study should meet the EU legislation on waste and in particular the Landfill Directive 99/31/EC. The climate impact from landfilling will be the overall objective for the recommendations.

On February the 9^th we fly down to Moldova in order to study the existing landfill. In situ the idea is to find out what is deposited at the landfill in order to classify it. We also need to study the geological conditions in order to find materials suitable for covering. It is important that we find local materials since it is not economically justifiable to propose artificial materials like geomembranes. We are also interested in leachate and soil samples in order to get an idea of the environmental conditions. The questions of interest may be:

• What should the Moldavians do to successfully close the landfill in Chisinau in order to fulfil the EU-directive 99/31/EC on landfilling?
• In which phase is the landfill?
• Approximately how much of the deposited waste is biodegradable material?
• How should the area, where the landfill is situated, be used in the future?

It is important for us that the recommendations are useful for the Moldavians. Therefore we will work close to experts in situ. We look forward to our departure. It will be a great challenge but also a very good experience.