Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste of a City in Western UP, India

Abstract

This report consists of the Characterization of municipal solid waste and management of MSW for Muzaffarnagar City, UP, India. Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in a city of western UP has been performed in order to determine the suitability for waste processing technologies in the city. Characterization is an important parameter in order to decide an appropriate design, cost effective and environmental friendly municipal waste management system. Physical characterization suggests about the organic and inorganic fraction in the waste. Geotechnical characteristics of waste helps in deciding the technology in design and maintenance of the landfill, whereas chemical characterization of the waste helps in deciding the technology in order to process the waste such as composting, vermicomposting, and Refused Derived Fuel . The results of characterization indicates that the approximated generation of the waste of the city is 120-125 MTD. The average per capita waste generation is 0.415 kg/person/day. A big fraction of the waste is organic in nature and has a significant calorific value too. Moreover analysis for better Municipal Solid Waste management also has been done. Around 70-80% of the city is covered by door-to-door collection method. The whole city is divided into 41 wards. Each ward has a collection point. Most of the ward’s bin are overflowing throughout the year. Moreover, some of the wards doesn’t have bins, so open dumping of the waste is taking place. There are not separate bins for organic and inorganic waste. There are 6 dumpers, 3 JCB, 3 tractors and 1 Ace are deployed in the city. There are inadequate labour and transportation system for the conveyance of waste. Composting and RDF are the methods to process the waste. Since last few years load on the treatment plant has increased significantly. There are not enough equipment and machines on the site that can process the waste, which has resulted into the mountains of waste in the site and around the site as well. Heaps of waste around the site cause bed odour and made unhygienic environment in the vicinity. The site has become house for many animals and insects. There is no provision of engineered landfill site, so ground water contamination from leachate has become a big problem.