Abstract: This paper studied the surface settlement, temperature, and gas production of land-filling pile, and the physical and chemical properties of aged refuse in 5-year-old semi-aerobic and anaerobic landfills. The pile’s surface settlement and its volume reduction rate were significantly higher in semi-aerobic than in anaerobic landfill; and the treatment with leachate recycling brought larger uneven settlement than the treatment with water recycling. The temperature of anaerobic landfill pile (25.6 ℃) was slightly higher than that of semi-aerobic landfill file (24.8 ℃), but the difference was not significant. During land-filling period, the O₂ concentration in semi-aerobic landfill pile was significantly higher than that in anaerobic one, while the CH₄ concentration was in reverse. After 5 years land-filling, the contents of easily degradable organic matters in aged refuse, such as kitchen refuses and papers, decreased dramatically, while the contents of plastics, glasses, bricks, and woods increased. In addition, the contents of organic matters and nutrients in aged refuse were higher than those in typical southern China soils, and the concentrations of heavy metals except chromium in anaerobic landfill aged refuse were not beyond the grade three of Environmental Quality Standards for Soils (GB 15618-1995).

Key words: aged-refuse, physical and chemical properties, settlement, land-filling temperature, landfill gas