Solid Waste Sources and

Separation Methods
Environmental Engineering
Dr. Amirhossein Malakahmad
Civil Engineering Department
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
LO1:Describe the fundamentals of various disciplines of
environmental engineering.
LO4:Understand and apply the principles of solid waste management,
and toxic and hazardous waste management.
Unit objectives
At the end of this session you will be able to:
Evaluate waste sources and importance of
waste quantities and factors that affect
waste generation

Calculate the waste generation rate and

materials recovered from MSW

Conduct waste characterization and

composition rate for future plans
Sources of solid wastes
Residential
Commercial
Institutional
Construction and demolition
Municipal services
Treatment plant sites
Industrial
Agricultural
Composition of Solid Waste in Malaysia
Solid waste composition data
Composition describes the individual
components that make up a solid waste
stream and their relative distribution, usually
based by percent by weight.
Information on the composition of solid
wastes is important in evaluating equipment
needs, system and management programand future plans.
How to determine the solid
waste composition?
Composition determination of the of
residential MSW
Unloading and analyzing a largequantity of weekdayresidential waste in
a controlled areathat is isolated from
winds.

To obtain a sample for analysis, the

load is first quartered. One part is then
selected for additional quartering until a
sample size of about 100 kg is obtained.
Solid Waste
Characterization and
Recycling Potential
for University
Technology
PETRONAS
Academic Buildings
Volume and weight measurement
The use of volume as a measure of quantity can
be misleading because of degree of compaction.

To avoid confusion, solid waste quantities

should be expressed in terms of weight.

Highway limits restricted by weight rather than

volume.

Weight and volume are equally important to the

capacity of landfill.
Units of expression for SW quantities
Residential
.kg/capita.d

Commercial
.Quantity generated to number of costumer or
money value of sales

Industrial
.kg/product

Agricultural
.kg of waste/kg of raw products
Methods for assessing waste
quantities
Estimate waste quantities
Material mass balance analysis
Statistical analysis of measured waste
quantities
Example 1:From the following data estimate the unit waste
generation rate per day for a residential area consisting of
1200 homes. The observation location is a local transfer
station which receive all the collected waste for disposal. The
observation period was one week.
Number of compactor truckloads = 9
Average size of compactor truck = 15 m3
Number of flatbed loads= 7
Average flatbed volume = 1.5 m3
Number of load from individual residents private cars and
truck = 20
Estimated volume per domestic vehicle = 0.25 m3

Assume that the specific weight, .for compactor truck,

flatbed truck and individual private vehicle are 300
kg/m3, 135 kg/m3and 90 kg/m3, respectively.
Compactor truckImage Preview
Flatbed loads
Example 2
You are assigned as junior
engineer in R&D department of
DBKL to estimate the waste
generation rate in Kuala Lumpur
for possible planning for
implementation of recycling
among the citizens. According to
your senior the completion of this
task should be done within two
working days. Discuss and
present you plan in the class.
Municipal Solid Waste generation rates
Estimates of MSW quantities are usually
based on the amount of waste generated per
person per day. If actual data are not
available, the unit waste generation rates for
MSW can be found using reference tables for
estimating purposes.
Factors that Affecting
Generation Rates
Source reduction and recycling
activities
Public attitudes and legislation
Geographic and physical factors
Source reduction and recycling
Source reduction is the design,
manufacture and packing of products with
minimum toxic content, minimum volume
of material and or longer useful life.
Waste reduction may also occur at the
household, commercial or industrial facility
through selective buying patterns and the
reuse of products and materials.
Decrease unnecessary or excessive packing
burning-man-packaging-before
Develop and use products with greater
durability and reparabilityxserve
Substitute reusable products for disposable,
single-use products
IM00050103
bad2
Use fewer resourcesposter
Increase the recycled materials content of
productsbottles
unbranded-garden-recycling-unit
The importance of MSW separation
An example from USA
Material
Weight
Generated
Weight
Recovered
Recovery
Rate
Paper/Paperboard
81.3
28.7
35.3%
Glass
13.3
3.1
23.4%
Metals
15.8
5.7
35.9%
Plastics
19.8
0.9
4.7%
Rubber/Leather
6.4
0.5
7.1%
Textiles
6.6
0.8
11.7%
Wood
14.6
1.4
9.8%
Food scraps
14.1
0.5
3.4%
Yard trimmings
30.6
7.0
22.9%
TOTAL
209.1
49.3
23.6%

Generation and Recovery of Materials in MSW: 1994. (www.pneac.org)

USA practice
To meet the mandated diversion goals (for
example 50% by 2000 in California),
information must be available on the:

Types and quantities of waste generated

Types and quantities of waste currently
separated for recycling or landfilling
Types and quantities of waste collected for
further processing or disposal