Abstract

Heavy metals (HM) contents of municipal solidwaste (MSW) are of immense concern in their management anddisposal system around the world. Landfilling (and in worsecase dumping) remains the preferred disposal method for MSWin majority of Africa countries. Consequently, the HMs, alsofound in household, medical and industrial waste, ends up inlandfills 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 thatdepends on these resources; this may contaminate the foodchain. This paper reported the spatial distribution of heavymetal concentrations in the topsoil from Cape Town landfillsites using the Inductively-Coupled Plasma Optical EmissionSpectrometry (ICP-OES). The results show that theconcentrations of the heavy metals found decreases withdistance from the landfill sites except for Cd which have theconcentration to be high close to the road. Recommendations onproper management and monitoring systems of the existingwaste sites that will limit the exposure of the populations tothese elements were made.