any available oxygen, creating an anoxic environment. In actively decomposing waste, the temperature rises and the pH falls rapidly with the result that many metal ions that are relatively insoluble at neutral pH become dissolved in the developing leachate. The decomposition processes themselves release more water, which adds to the volume of leachate. Leachate also reacts with materials that are not prone to decomposition themselves, such as fire ash, cement-based building materials and gypsum-based materials changing the chemical composition. In sites with large volumes of building waste, especially those containing gypsum plaster, the reaction of leachate with the gypsum can generate large volumes of hydrogen sulfide, which may be released in the leachate and may also form a large component of the landfill gas. The physical appearance of leachate when it emerges from a typical landfill site is a strongly odoured black-, yellow- or orange-coloured cloudy liquid. The smell is acidic and offensive and may be very pervasive because of hydrogen-, nitrogen- and sulfur-rich organic species such as mercaptans. In a landfill that receives a mixture of municipal, commercial, and mixed industrial waste but excludes significant amounts of concentrated chemical waste, landfill leachate may be characterized as a water-based solution of four groups of contaminants: dissolved organic matter (alcohols, acids, aldehydes, short chain sugars, etc.), inorganic macro components (common cations and anions including sulfate, chloride, iron, aluminium, zinc and ammonia), heavy metals (Pb, Ni, Cu, Hg), and xenobiotic organic compounds such as halogenated organics, (PCBs, dioxins, etc.). A number of complex organic contaminants have also been detected in landfill leachates. Samples from raw and treated landfill leachate yielded 58 complex organic contaminants including 2-OH-benzothiazole in 84% of the samples and perfluorooctanoic acid in 68%. Bisphenol A, valsartan and 2-OH-benzothiazole had the highest average concentrations in raw leachates, after biological treatment and after reverse osmosis, respectively. Leachate management In older landfills and those with no membrane between the waste and the underlying geology, leachate is free to leave the waste and flow directly into the groundwater. In such cases, high concentrations of leachate are often found in nearby springs and flushes. As leachate first emerges it can be black in colour, anoxic, and possibly effervescent, with dissolved and entrained gases. As it becomes oxygenated it tends to turn brown or yellow because of the presence of iron salts in solution and in suspension. It also quickly develops a bacterial flora often