Leading partnership in protecting the environment
A geomembrane made with SABIC®LLDPE is being used by Attero, a leading Dutch waste management company, to cap a waste containment site to prevent rainwater from entering the landfill and landfill gas from leaving into the atmosphere.
Safeguarding water
Rainwater accumulating in the landfill and becoming contaminated needs to be collected and cleaned. To support this, Attero decided to cover the containment with 141,000 square meters of geomembrane, equivalent to 44 football fields. The geomembrane is made from the medium density SABIC® LLDPE 0132HS00 grade, introduced in 1999 and especially developed for geomembrane applications.
A geomembrane made from SABIC materials being laid by Attero (former Essent Milieu) to contain waste
Partners in leadership
The two-millimeter thin, seven-meter wide geomembrane is being produced by GSE Lining Technology GmbH in Rechlin, Germany and installed by the Dutch company Cofra based in Amsterdam. Cofra is the market leader in the Netherlands, when it comes to the installation of 2 mm geomembrane. In 2009 over 750.000 m2 of 2 mm geomembrane were installed on a number of project sites. Marcel van Enckevort, International Account Manager at SABIC, commercially responsible for GSE Lining Technology, says: "GSE Lining Technology is the world's leading producer of geomembranes and we clearly want to team up with leading producers."
New energy
Apart from preventing polluted water entering the environment, biogas produced by the decaying process will also be collected and used for energy production. "Attero needs a solution for landfill capping which can be guaranteed for more than 100 years," explains van Enckevort. "PE can last for more than 100 years because it doesn't degrade in the soil."
Product of choice
PE's non-degradability, usually one of the major negative points in environmental discussions is actually what makes it an excellent choice for this type of application - particularly due to its superior barrier properties against gases and liquids.
BAM accreditation
"SABIC® LLDPE 0132HS00 already holds a position as a top PE grade - strengthened through industry accreditations like DIBt and KIWA," says Léon Nelissen, Technical Marketing Engineer responsible for the geomembrane segment. "We also expect to get the BAM accreditation - the highest German standard for geomembranes - later this year."
