Characteristics of community domestic waste separation: separation amount, physical and chemical characteristics

Abstract

With the improvement of people’s living standards and the highly progress of urban construction, the management of domestic waste has become increasingly important. To a large extent, the treatment and utilization of domestic waste depends on the physical and chemical composition of the separated waste. However, there is an insufficient research on the characteristics of community waste after mandatory classification. To fulfil the existing research gap, a community that has started with waste separation was chosen for waste generation and separation. Three ways including weighed by community residents, weighed by community cleaners and weighed by automatic electronic scale were conducted in the present study. From households, food waste contained the biggest component, 49%, while the residual waste counted for 32% and the residuals were recyclable waste. When weighed by cleaners, the average amount of separated household food waste was on the range of 0.07-0.23 kg/d/person. In addition, an automatic electronic scale was invented to realize real-time weighing, and the quality waste bin, the peak weight as well as the concentration time for separation were recorded. When compared to the generation of food waste, 6% to 56% of household food waste was separated. In addition, physical and chemical components were conducted for conducting further analysis. The results demonstrate that food waste contains a high purity with a percentage of 98.76%.