International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Municipal solid waste (MSW) composition studies are essential to proper management of waste for a variety of reasons including a need to estimate potential materials recovery, to identify sources of component generation, to facilitate design of processing equipment, to estimate physical, chemical, and thermal properties of the wastes, and to maintain compliance with regulations. The composition of generated waste is extremely variable as a consequence of seasonal variation, lifestyle, demographic, geographic, and local legislation impacts. The aim of this paper is to determine the composition of MSW in Gaza Strip. Two field studies were conducted on Gaza Strip landfills during 2010 and 2011 to find out the average composition of the MSW. The methodology and procedures for this study were derived from the Standard Test Method for Determination of the Composition of Unprocessed MSW (ASTM D 5231-92). All samples were hand sorted into 7 waste categories (paper, plastic, food waste, other organics, metals, glass, and other waste). The composition of the entire waste stream was 52% Organics (most of them are food waste), 13% Plastics, 11% Papers, 3% Metals, 3% Glass and 18% Other Waste. Consequently, these results should be taken as a baseline for the entire area.

Index Terms—Municipal solid waste; waste composition; landfills; gaza strip.

Authors are with civil engineering department, Islamic university of Gaza, P.O. Box 108 Gaza, Palestine (e-mail: aalqader@gmail.com; jhamad@iugaza.edu.ps).

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Cite: Ahmad Abd Alqader and Jehad Hamad, "Municipal Solid Waste Composition Determination Supporting the Integrated Solid Waste Management in Gaza Strip," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 172-176, 2012.