Abstract—Heavy metals (HM) contents of municipal solid
waste (MSW) are of immense concern in their management and
disposal system around the world. Landfilling (and in worse
case dumping) remains the preferred disposal method for MSW
in majority of Africa countries. Consequently, the HMs, also
found in household, medical and industrial waste, ends up in
landfills and dumpsites. Over time, if not properly managed,
these metals present a contamination risk to the nearby soil,
ground and surface water, as well as the biodiversity that
depends on these resources; this may contaminate the food
chain. This paper reported the spatial distribution of heavy
metal concentrations in the topsoil from Cape Town landfill
sites using the Inductively-Coupled Plasma Optical Emission
Spectrometry (ICP-OES). The results show that the
concentrations of the heavy metals found decreases with
distance from the landfill sites except for Cd which have the
concentration to be high close to the road. Recommendations on
proper management and monitoring systems of the existing
waste sites that will limit the exposure of the populations to
these elements were made.
Index Terms—Municipal solid waste, heavy metals, leachate,
cape town landfills.
A. O. Osibote is with the Department of Mathematics and Physics,
Faculty of Applied Science, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape
Town, South Africa (e-mail: osibotea@cput.ac.za).
A. M. Rabiu is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South
Africa (e-mail: rabiua@cput.ac.za).
Cite: Adelaja O. Osibote and Ademola M. Rabiu, "Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination at Cape Town Landfill Sites," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 831-834, 2016.
