The performance of a laboratory scale landfill bioreactor with two compartments (simulated landfill reactor and a sand channel) was investigated in this study. Solid waste components similar to the typical Malaysian waste were collected from the cafeterias in University Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Perak, Malaysia and used to generate leachate in the simulated landfill bioreactor. Leachate produced were slowly and systematically introduced into the bottom sand channel where methanogenesis rapidly occurred thereby resulting in a better stabilized system than the simulated landfill reactor. After 20 months of anaerobic incubation of both reactors, it was observed that the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5) concentrations were lower in the sand channel while the pH values were higher than the simulated landfill reactor. Reduction in COD and BOD5 in the sand channel were 88 and 90, respectively. The pH of the simulated landfill reactor remained acidic at 6.2 while the pH of the sand channel was 7.9. Ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration was also observed to be lower in the sand channel at 1435 mg L-1as against 1509 mg L-1in the simulated landfill bioreactor. The constituent methane gas percentage in the simulated landfill reactor and sand channel were 25 and 58, respectively. The obtained result clearly indicates that the attachment of a sand channel to landfills can be applied for the degradation and reduction of organic pollutants in leachate while methane gas recovered is enhanced. © 2016 Asian Network for Scientific Information.