Book excerpt: Using biotechnology to help control landfill processes can mitigate costs, shorten the time needed to process solid waste, and ease the typical ecological damage to the land being used. This first-of-its-kind book provides regulators, designers, landfill owners, and operators with information that supports the utility of landfill bioreactors and provides design and operating criteria essential for the successful application of this technology. It pulls together laboratory, pilot, and full-scale experiences into one concise guide to designing and running municipal landfills as bioreactors. Landfill Bioreactor Design and Operation covers the history and background of landfill technology, research studies of actual bioreactor landfills, expected leachate and gas yields, specific design criteria, operation guidelines, and reuse of landfill sites to avoid having to establish new sites. For anyone looking for an alternative to large, wasteful landfill sites, this book provides a practical alternative to the problem.