ORIGINAL PAPER Performance of Scrap Tire Shreds as a Potential Leachate Collection Medium Gunjan Bhalla • Arvind Kumar • Ajay Bansal Received: 3 December 2009 / Accepted: 1 April 2010 / Published online: 13 April 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract The use of scrap-tire-shreds as leachate collection layer in landfills would reduce the magni- tude of the current tire disposal problem by converting a waste into a beneficial material. Laboratory studies were conducted to investigate scrap-tire-shreds as an attractive potential alternative to conventional gravel in the drainage layer of leachate collection system by comparative analysis of various physico-chemical parameters. Gravel and scrap-tire-shreds in combina- tion were used as leachate collection layer. Laboratory Test Cells consisting of different combinations of scrap-tire-shreds (size range length = 25.4 mm to 76.1 mm and width = 5 mm) and gravel (size range 10 mm to 20 mm) beds as leachate collection layer with total bed thickness of 500 mm were constructed. Performance study of Test Cells- 1 to 7, having different combinations of scrap-tire-shreds and gravel bed thickness, were studied to work out the best combination. Combined beds of scrap-tire-shreds and gravel gave better results as compared to conventional gravel or scrap- tire- shreds bed when used singly. Test Cell -3 having scrap-tire-shreds layer (200 mm) and gravel layer (300 mm) gave the best results in terms of percentage reduction in various physico- chemical parameters of leachate. The reduction was as high as 68.8 and 79.6% in case of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) values respectively. Further, three more lab- oratory Test Cells-8, 9 and 10 were constructed having scrap-tire-shreds and gravel layer ratio same as that of Test Cell- 3 (best combination) but having scrap-tire-shreds of different widths 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm to find out the most suitable size. Bed of smaller size scrap-tire-shreds (5 mm) gave better results in comparison to bigger sizes. Leachate sample after passing through combined beds of scrap-tire- shreds and gravel gave better results in percentage reduction in various physico-chemical parameters of leachate as compared to conventional gravel or scrap- tire-shreds bed when used singly. Keywords Leachate  Landfills  Gravel  Scrap- tire- shreds  Leachate collection layer 1 Introduction Huge quantity of unwanted scrap tires are being generated every year. This unwanted scrap results in major environmental hazards worldwide. The present recycling techniques of the scrap tires consume a very small amount of the unwanted tires. The G. Bhalla  A. Kumar (&) Department of Civil Engineering, Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab 144011, India e-mail: agnihotriak@nitj.ac.in A. Bansal Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab 144011, India 123 Geotech Geol Eng (2010) 28:661–669 DOI 10.1007/s10706-010-9325-5