Determination of Residual Municipal Solid Waste Composition from Rural and Urban Areas: A Step toward the Optimization of a Waste Management System for Efficient Material Recovery

Abstract

Residual municipal solid waste (RMSW) is a rapidly expanding problem worldwide and a good waste management system could reduce concerns about its correct treatment. The purpose of this study was to characterize RMSW from urban and rural areas with the ultimate goal of estimating the recycling potential of the identified fractions and implementing waste collection and recovery methods according to the type of area that generates them. A direct sampling campaign of RMSW was performed. The results showed that the highest organic waste rate was found in the rural area (11.9%); urban-area-produced RMSW mainly constituted recyclable fractions such as plastic (26.3%), paper (21.8%), glass (3.5%) and metals (3.3%). The physical-chemical characteristics of RMSW showed levels of heavy metals below the detection threshold. The conditions necessary for composting could be met only for the organic fraction coming from rural areas as demonstrated by a pH value of 6.9 and a moisture content of 46.5%. These data will be extended to all the urban and rural areas to design appropriate disposal and/or recovery plants with profitable economic interventions that will lead to a reduction in costs in the planning of the integrated solid waste management.

How Indonesia’s Cities Are Grappling with Plastic Waste: An Integrated Approach towards Sustainable Plastic Waste Management

“…As the smallest-sized city, Magelang generates a relatively insignificant amount of plastic waste from consumer products, such as PET bottles or other rigid plastic food packaging (WBC3). This aligns with a previous study by Triasi et al, which found that urban areas tend to have a higher volume of recyclable waste, including plastic, than organic waste, compared to areas with lower population densities [128]. This trend is also attributed to the community's preference for home cooking, a practice where many cooking ingredients purchased from the market are commonly wrapped in transparent soft plastics (WBC3).…”

“…This high prevalence of soft plastics may also be linked to the city's local fashion industry (see Table 1), which requires a significant amount of plastic packaging [126]. Furthermore, several previous studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between a city's size, population growth, and income and its MSW consumption [127][128][129]. However, studies on plastic waste composition and its relationship to city characteristics remain limited.…”

“…It is obvious that the most crucial aspect of integrated waste management is characterizing waste to determine its fate [128]. Therefore, it is vital in these case studies to analyze waste composition data to identify which types of waste have high recycling potential, which materials are low value in the recycling chain [44], and which plastic wastes are problematic and require government intervention [135].…”

Recommendations for life-cycle assessment of recyclable plastics in a circular economy

“…Urban areas with high population density tend to have more waste management and recycling infrastructure in contrast to rural areas that have less infrastructure and may not recycle at all. 56 In the case of centralized sorting, material recovery facilities (MRFs) take in mixed recyclable waste streams and separate plastic materials by polymer type. Currently, of plastic types, most US MRFs only target PET and HDPE with a particular focus on bottles and other rigid forms.…”

Transitioning towards circular economy through municipal solid waste analysis and characterisation using SowaCLINK software

“…Because a comprehensive knowledge of the MSW composition enables effective, economical, and environmentally friendly MSWM systems for efficient material recovery (Faisal et al, 2019;Triassi et al, 2023), this study aims to develop a structured approach for MSW quantification. It also seeks to determine the composition of the MSW, identify current MSWM practices, ascertain the energy contents of the MSW generated in the Aba metropolis, and propose sustainable MSWM techniques based on circularity.…”