Enhancing the Properties of Landfill-Mined Legacy Soil-Like Fine Fractions through Local Soil Blending: A Novel Approach

The rapid rise in dumpsites, especially in countries like India, poses serious waste management challenges. Landfill mining offers a sustainable solution, but its efficiency is hindered by soil-like fine fractions that are difficult to reuse due to poor properties and potential toxicity. This study explores a novel “local soil blending” technique to improve the geotechnical potential of fine fractions from the Saliyar dumpsite by mixing them with sand from the Solani riverbank. Laboratory tests showed that 20% soil blending significantly improved key properties, reducing organic content, total dissolved solids, and leachate colour by 38.4%, 28%, and 10.9%, respectively. Maximum dry density and load-bearing capacity increased, while permeability dropped by 35.8%, suggesting a possible reduction in leachate migration. These enhancements make the blended fines suitable for reuse in geotechnical applications, which has the potential to improve landfill mining efficiency and support sustainable infrastructure development.