It’s 4 p.m.
The last truck of the day just dumped its waste and the rest of the trash has already been compacted properly, meaning your team can finally start applying daily cover. For the next three hours, four employees will drive a dozer up and down the slopes, hauling your limited supply of dirt to the open working face.
Tomorrow, they’ll have to spend a few more hours scraping it all off again.
This is not a sustainable daily cover solution — not financially, environmentally or for your employees.
Fortunately, there is another option for landfills looking to ditch the dirt for a better solution. Atmos’ Alternative Daily Cover foam isn’t just quicker, easier and safer to apply, but it’s also a greener daily cover option.
- It’s PFOS- and PFAS-free.
- The EPA approved it for Subtitle D landfills.
- Even though it’s a foam, time and temperature don’t weaken it.
- It can be used as daily cover and in remediation projects.
- It’s not a CapEx purchase.
Let’s take a closer look.
1: The foam contains no PFOS or PFAS, meaning it doesn’t add forever chemicals to leachate
PFOS and PFAS, also known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or forever chemicals, are today’s biggest challenge for landfills.
These chemicals — which may cause harm to humans and animals — come from both everyday products, like textiles and packaging, as well as from sewage sludge, pesticides and food products.
When these products wind up at landfills, PFOS and PFAS don’t degrade naturally over time. They seep into leachate. As the parts per trillion in the leachate grows, it becomes more difficult to remove enough that it can be safely disposed of.
But PFOS and PFAS aren’t just found in wastes; they’re also found in water, air and soil around the world. This means that using dirt for daily cover could actually be adding to the PFOS and PFAS levels in your leachate.
Our water-based alternative daily cover foam is PFOS- and PFAS-free, meaning it won’t contribute to the concentration of forever chemicals at your landfill.
Made of aerated water, protein, food-grade starches and proprietary surfactants, the biodegradable foam expands 20-to-1 on application. Then, over the course of 24-48 hours, it dehydrates from a shaving cream consistency into a flaky powder.
Not only is the ADC foam environmentally safe, but it also won’t irritate skin, eliminating the need for wash basins and eye-wash stations.
2: Not just effective — but also safe for your landfill and community
Subtitle D requires landfills to cover their working faces daily to control for odors, fire, scavenging, blowing litter and disease vectors. Our alternative daily cover foam solves for all these factors while also reducing the labor-intensive process of using dirt.
But how does it work? The dense, nonflammable foam creates an impermeable barrier that traps complaint-producing odors and other vectors in, locking them down. And with the waste secured, there’s nothing for creatures to scavenge and no loose litter to blow around.
While the EPA approved Subtitle D landfills to use our foam as daily cover almost 40 years ago, permission for individual landfills is determined at the municipal level. Don’t worry, though: We’ve never had a local governing body deny the use of our foam.
3: Works in almost any environment
To be effective as daily cover, the foam must maintain its integrity for at least 24 hours, but up to 72 to ensure adequate coverage over weekends. Adjusting the longevity of the foam is as simple as changing the ratio of the chemical base to water. For example, a 4-to-1 water to chemical ratio will last the weekend, while a 6-to-1 ratio will last overnight.
Weather doesn’t weaken the foam, either. Hot and cold temperatures won’t weaken its viability, and while a severe downpour or a full day of steady rain may break up the foam, a simple rain shower is nothing to worry about. In fact, humidity even rehydrates the foam, helping it last longer. To keep your landfill’s operation running in all climates, the foam application trucks and chemical storage tanks are heated, cooled and insulated.
4: Flexible formula tackles even the toughest projects
While we designed our foam to be used as daily cover, remediation projects represent another useful application.
During remediation projects, it’s not out of the ordinary to work with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These materials produce noxious odors and are also typically stored in densely populated areas before they’re hauled to a landfill.
To mitigate those odors, our foam locks onto the waste material and traps those VOCs in. Often this material doesn’t stay in the staging area for longer than a day, so there are no concerns about the foam’s structure — it even floats for pond and other water remediation projects.
No two remediation projects are the same, but our foam has been used for everything from petrochemical dredging to covering railcars as they transport materials to landfills.
5: No capital expense means quicker approvals
When you work with Atmos, we own, supply and maintain all the equipment you need, including the chemical storage tanks and Morooka foam applicator. That way, it guarantees you get the proprietary equipment you need to properly aerate the foam, apply it at the correct pressure and handle its viscosity… all with no capital expense.
Instead, our services come from your operational budget. This means you don’t have to purchase CapEx equipment or go through lengthy budget approval processes to get started.
Make us your sustainable solution
Meet daily cover requirements without introducing more forever chemicals into your landfill.
For an effective daily cover or remediation solution that’s friendly for the environment and your community, get in touch with our team. Let’s talk about your goals.