Well, I suppose there are many standards, and it depends of your aim and scope definition.

For example, in Brazil, we have political documents to classify solid waste in: hazardous, inert, and non inert waste. Moreover, I work with LCA, and there is a method called EDIP97, where it is possible to classify solid waste in: hazardous waste,bulk waste and radioactive waste.

So, I believe the secret here is: what are you going to do with the classified solid waste? What is your goal? When you answer such questions you can better define which standards to use.

I understand that you are working with municipal solid waste generation. So, probably you could start making a list of political standards for classifying solid waste in your country.

Cordially,

Yes, you can find different standards. Almost all the guidelines, manuals and books give you indications how to segregate waste, and in particular which categories you should use (e.g. UNEP, ISWA, World Bank). However if you want a standard method, you could apply the following one:

• ASTM D5231 Standard Test Method for Determination on the Composition of Unprocessed Municipal Solid Waste. ASTM International, 1992 (2008), doi: 10.1520/D5231-92R08.

Maybe for your research it could be interesting to create different layers with, for example, the following pieces of information per each bin (point):

- quantity of waste weighed;

- quantity of a specific waste category (e.g. organic, paper, metal, plastic)

- quantity of waste wrongly segregated (e.g. non-organic waste in a bin for organic waste only)

Then you could cross the data with socioeconomic data (population, economic conditions, if the area is commercial/industrial/residential, etc.). You could get very interesting data.

Good luck!

Solid waste is classified into hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Hazardous wastes are solid or semi-solid, which includes substances that are either ignitable, corrosive, explosive, reactive or infections (e.g. pesticides such as DDT, etc).

Non-hazardous wastes are classified into "putrescible" (i.e. easily biodegradable solid waste such as food wastes), and "non-putrescible" (i.e. non-biodegradable solid waste such as plastic bags, tin cans, bottle water containers, etc).

You can use ASTM waste management standards. It provides the guides, practices, and test methods pertinent to the process of handling residential, commercial, and industrial wastes. I suggest the following methods: ASTM D5231-92 (2008), ASTM D5232-13, ASTM D4843-88 (2009), or ASTM E889-82 (2014). They should be available in your institution's library or you may have to purchase them. In addition, the USEPA have standards (under Wastes - Hazardous Waste) that provide a variety of analytical and characteristic testing methodologies, sampling and monitoring, and quality assurance. USEPA standards provide specific procedures on how waste is identified, classified, listed, etc (www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/). Some EPA methods that may be useful to you include EPA Method 1050, EPA Method 1040.

very informative explanations

Thank you all here

Well i want know that is it possible that we can use the solid waste for power generation??

pls reply

Regards

Moharana

Regarding the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), it can be classified as (L. De Baere and J. Mata-Alvarez):

- Biowaste: organic matter from source sorting collection

- Mixed waste: organic matter from non source-sorted collection

- Residual waste: organic matter remaining after the collection of biowaste

Note that this terminology is a modern approach to the previous OFMSW classification, i.e. (MSOFMSW), separately collected OFMSW (SC-OFMSW), and source sorted OFMSW (SS-OFMSW).

Ref.

De Baere L. Will anaerobic digestion of solid waste survive in the future? Water Sci Technol 2006;53:187–94.

S. Astals, M.S. Romero-Güiza, J. Mata-Alvarez, Alternative Energies, in: G. Ferreira (Ed.), Alternatives Energies, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, 2013, pp. 1–26.

Dear Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva , Marco Caniato, Eric Danso-Boateng, Moharana Choudhury (Roy choudhury) , Sergi Astals. Thank you! My sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone.

It is dependant on each country. There are guidelines for general waste, industrial, liquid, solid and prescribed industrial waste. Within these guidelines there are parameters that each contaminant must fall within to be classified a particular category. It also depends on the volume of waste that you are willing to classify as to how many samples are required. Samples are sent off for lab analysis and then the report containing the results can be read over and compared to the guidelines to see which category they fall into.

Yes Moharana. Apart from Anaerobic digestion, you can use solid waste for power (energy) generation using the following techniques:

1. Hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) - major product is biochar (or hydrochar), with energy (heating) value similar to that of brown coal. HTC is a wet process, because organic waste must be heated in water under pressure at temperatures between 180 to 220 deg Cel.

2. Liquefaction - major product is bio-oil. Temperatures similar to HTC, and also a wet process.

3. Pyrolysis - major product is bio-oil, with lesser amount of biochar. Temperature and pressure are higher than that required for HTC, and required dry solid waste.

4. Gassification - major product is syn gas. Extremely higher temperature and pressure.

According to the European Directive 2008/98/EC of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives (including Directive 2006/12/EC of 5 April 2006 on waste, text repealed with effect from 12 December 2010 Article 41 of Directive 2008/98/EC), the term used for waste is "any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard."

In Europe, the landfill of waste is subject to the directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 This defines three categories of waste, to distinguish the most appropriate channels. Non-hazardous inert waste and hazardous .

Council Decision of 19 December 2002 (2003/33/EC) establishes the criteria and procedures for the acceptance of waste in landfills pursuant to Article 16 and Annex II of Directive 1999/31/EC . These criteria are based on a leaching test (batch: EN 12457-1 or -2, or column: prEN 14405)

standard methodology is:

Determination of the problem and the desired solution:

• Type of scenario

• Type of waste

• Nature of the desired solution

Scenario description:

• Mechanical & Conditions geotechnical

• hydrogeological conditions & climate

• Biological Conditions

• Use of the site at different times

• Exceptional Conditions

Description of waste:

• Nature and Origin

• Total Chemistry

• Physical Properties & geotechnical

• Mineralogy & chemical specifications

• Chemical Properties

Determination of the influence of the properties of the waste and the specified scenario conditions on the release:

• Chemical Parameters

• Physical Parameters

• Mechanical & geotechnical parameters

• Biological Parameters

Modeling of leaching behavior:

• Establish a logical hierarchy of influences of various parameters

• Simplification by eliminating insignificant parameters

• Establish a forecasting model and simulation in the scenario considered

Dear Steph Holland, you mentioned sample collection is based on volume of waste generation here only my doubt starts. For a municipality of an area of 36 sq.km, as per government record they says 120 - 130 MT of waste generation per day. For this scenario how much sample I need to collect. Where I have to collect either the dump yard or the collecting bin? in case dump yard means what are all the methodology is there to collect the sample properly. similarly in collecting bin means how can I collect.

Standards like ASTM D5231-92 (2008), ASTM D5232-13, ASTM D4843-88 (2009), or ASTM E889-82 (2014 which one I need to be follow. Mr.Paul Jacob  you have choosed ASTM D5231 - 92(2008) can you tell me why you choosed that. This may be useful for me to choose which ASTM.

Dear SureshKumar,

I suggest you to use weight, not the volume: volume can easily change (compaction due to transport, collection/disposal method), while weight cannot.

In order to calculate the quantity you have to use a statistical method. In the standards like ASTM you can find some, usually to get a sample from a certain quantity of waste. But if you want to assess a city, you need to decide where to focus your effort. You can decide yoursself based on some considerations, or again using a method. In this document you can find a method to select bins to assess in a health-care facility, applycable also to your case. http://gefmedwaste.org/downloads/Baseline%20Assessment%20Guidance%20April%202010%20UNDP%20GEF%20Project.pdf

Eventually you can use something more "general", fixing confidence interval and level, considering a certain total waste population (12,000-13,000 kg/day), as in your case. It's not a specific method, but can work. http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm.

Despite the method, for MSW I suggest you a composition analysis of at least 1 week (better 2). It should be repeated regularly in order to identify eventually changes due to seasonality (rain season, winter time, change in food consumption, particular events, fasting, etc.). However if it is the first study for your city, maybe you can start just with a good 2 weeks assessment.

Good luck, it will be a tough work!

Dear Marco Caniato. Thanks you very much, now really I got some idea in this. Thank you

weight measurements and finding the bulk density helps you in designing the MSW systems and area required

US Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). Test methods for evaluating solid

waste, physical/chemical methods (SW 846). National Technical Information

Service; 1997.

US Environmental Protection Agency. RCRA training modules: introduction to hazardouswaste identification. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection

Agency; 2003

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U.S. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/97148/

It depends on the purpose of waste composition and extent of details required you may chose to use ASTM Method  and then if more details are required then you seggregate further each najor group into minors, such as plastics into light plastics and dense plastics.