Waste bio cover soils (WBS) have been demonstrated to have great potential in mitigating trichloroethylene (TCE) emission from landfills, due to the relatively high TCE-degrading capacity. In this study, the characteristics of TCE adsorption on WBS in the presence of the major landfill gas components (i.e., CH4 and CO2) were investigated in soil microcosms. The adsorption isotherm of TCE onto WBS was fitted well with linear model within the TCE concentrations of 7000 ppmv. The adsorption capacity of TCE onto WBS was affected by temperature, soil moisture content and particle size, of which, temperature was the dominant factor. The adsorption capacity of TCE onto the experimental materials increased with the increasing organic matter content. A significantly positive correlation was observed between the adsorption capacity of TCE and the organic matter content of experimental materials that had relatively higher organic content (r = 0.988, P = 0.044). To better understand WBS application in practice, response surface methodology was developed to predict TCE adsorption capacity and emissions through WBS in different landfills in China. These results indicated that WBS had high adsorption capacity of TCE in LFG and temperature should be paid more attention to manipulate WBS to reduce TCE emissions from landfills. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.