Abstract
As stated on the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges website,‘‘the challenges facing engineering today are not those of isolated locales, but of the planet as a whole and all the planet’s people. Meeting all those challenges must make the world not only a more technologically advanced and connected place, but also a more sustainable, safe, healthy, and joyous—in other words, better—place”(NAE, 2015). Likewise, the growing solid waste generation rates pose significant health and technical challenges. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (2015), the US produced 254 million tons of MSW in 2013, although some sources suggest that the amount may be much greater. Globally, it is estimated that 1.3 billion tonnes of MSW were generated in 2010 and that value is projected to increase to 2.5 billion tonnes per year by 2025 (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tat, 2012). The collection, processing, and disposal of MSW potentially leads to adverse environmental impacts, undesirable land uses, and reduced housing values. Increasing urbanization magnifies these impacts as population densifies and local disposal options (ie, landfills) become limited. Therefore, a focus on key opportunities, grand challenges, and potential solutions in our field is needed. The attendees of the 8th Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium held in Crystal River, Florida US, October 2014 gathered to consider the grand challenges in th