RDDP: Road to the Future

St. Clair County, recognizing the need for leadership to realize the full potential of bioreactor landfill technology, seized the initiative. Together with legislative, regulatory, and industry partners, St. Clair County launched a full-scale bioreactor landfill Research, Development, and Demonstration Project (RDDP). Leveraging the environmental engineering expertise of the County’s consultant CTI and Associates, Inc., the County launched the RDDP to become the first septage bioreactor landfill in the United States. This specific version of bioreactor technology innovatively combines residential septic waste and household garbage (municipal solid waste) within the landfill to accelerate green, biological decomposition of the waste simultaneously addressing two serious community waste streams with one technology. As a first-of-its kind project, the RDDP has specific scientific objectives to explore and mature this technology.

The main objectives of the RDDP include 

• Evaluate the effectiveness of bioreactor landfill operations at full scale 

• Evaluate the impact of select liquids addition (including septic waste) on the waste decomposition processes 

• Develop operational guidelines for select liquids addition to bioreactor landfills 

• Develop operational guidelines to optimize temperature for accelerated waste decomposition 

The findings and conclusions of the County’s first-of-its-kind RDDP will allow the County and regulatory agencies to explore the feasibility of applying this technology in future landfill development. 

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Click the documents below for detailed background to this RDDP