Analyzing the impact of age on waste properties at an open dumpsite in Khulna

Abstract

The rapid growth of the population has led to a significant increase in the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW), posing a burden and concern for our environment. Landfill mining as well as waste to energy could be a solution to this issue, but they require waste composition, particle size, and physiochemical and ultimate analysis are prerequisite requirements. Particle size was assessed through sieve analysis, categorizing MSW into ten different types followed by physiochemical and ultimate analyses. This study aimed to examine how the properties of MSW change with age. Findings showed that fine particles increased with age while larger particles decreased. With aging, certain physical components decreased, while others either increased or stayed constant. Organic content showed a significant decrease of 70.548% for fresh MSW and 0.35% for fifteen-year-old waste whereas plastic content remained almost constant after an increase from fresh MSW. Moisture content and volatile content of MSW reduced with age while fixed carbon and ash content increased with age. Ultimate analysis shows a drop of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen while oxygen shows a rise. Calorific value was found a decrease in trend with age indicating that the energy content of MSW reduced with age. A drastic reduction of unit weight was found in this study, dropping from 9.31 kN/m3 to 4.668 kN/m3. This study highlights the overall composition of MSW, the fluctuation in physiochemical analysis with age, and the sieve analysis and particle size distribution. It also displays the unit weight and the age-wise variation of the ultimate analysis. The findings of this study will aid landfill mining and waste to energy by providing comprehensive properties of MSW.

Keywords

• Municipal solid waste
• Landfill mining
• Particle size
• Physiochemical analysis
• Ultimate analysis