This issue of Waste and Resource Management features two briefings and four papers. The briefing by Avery provides a timely update on the January 2006 publication by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, titled The Case for a Resource Management Strategy, and the government's response to it. Patel and Porter describe the framework that has been established for the management of Greater Manchester's waste for the next 25 years. Both of these will be helpful to those directly involved in regional and national waste planning, as well as being of general interest to the readership at large.
Fowmes et al. describe and discuss the design requirements for EU directive-compliant landfill sites, in terms of their stability and integrity in relation to the subgrade, lining systems, waste slopes and capping. This will be a useful reference to designers as this sometimes overlooked aspect of the EU Landfill Directive begins to have a significant impact on landfill design, construction and operation.
The paper by Hudson et al. assesses the hydraulic conductivity of tyres and tyre shreds in the context of landfill basal drainage systems, and complements the work by the same authors on tyre compressibility published in Waste and Resource Management in November 2006. Drainage systems represent a potentially large market for waste tyre products. However, there is some concern that compression under the weight of the overlying waste would militate against their use at the bottom of a landfill, which this paper should go some way to dispel.
Tyrologou et al. address the fundamentals of mechanics and fluid flow in lime-stabilised mineral-biomass mixtures for use in groundworks. This is an important area, as such wastes may well become increasingly common as a result of the implementation of the EU Landfill Directive. Tyrologou et al. conclude that such materials have relatively high strength and moderate to low hydraulic conductivity, but that the potential for leaching of ammonia and heavy metals may require their isolation from the surrounding ground. These findings are confirmed in the pilot scale field trial reported by Chan and Dudeney.
Waste and Resource Management is part of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The journal aims to publish original contributions on research and practice relating to all civil engineering and construction aspects of the resource management cycle, from waste minimisation through the reuse and processing of waste materials to the management and disposal of residual wastes. Original papers for publication, and discussion of papers recently published, are welcomed.
