Assessment of reuse, recycle, and recoverable potential of solid waste

¹ Haramaya Institute of Technology, 138 Dire Dawa, Haramaya University, Ethiopia
² College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Haramaya University, Ethiopia
³ Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, TU Delft, 2600 GA, Netherlands
⁴ IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft 2601 DA, Netherlands

^* Corresponding author: mesedawit@gmail.com or m.dawit-teweldebrihan@un-ihe.org

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the reuse, recycle, and recoverable potential of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Generation rate, waste type, and physicochemical analysis of MSW were evaluated. Results of MSW analysis indicated that the total amount of MSW generation rate per day at Haramaya University (HU) is estimated to be 2608.56 kg/day. The per capita solid waste generation rate is estimated to be 0.134 kg/cap/day. The three waste categories that contributed the greatest proportion of the total sorted waste at all sources are compostable organic matter (57.31%), papers (16.26%), and fines (10.98%) respectively. These three waste categories accounted for approximately 84.55% of the total waste sorted. The remaining 15.45% of the sorted waste were plastic material (5.82%), miscellaneous (4.45%), cardboards (2.37%), metals (1.30%), glass (0.87%), and textiles (0.63%). The particle size distribution of compostable organic matter is 42.76% (greater than 50 mm), 53.2% (between 10-50 mm), and 4.04% (less than 10 mm). The result shows that a large proportion of compostable organic waste is found in the particle size range of 10-50 mm. The physicochemical composition of selected compostable organic waste was compared with standard values suitable for the composting process. The study further revealed that there has been a generation rate of potentially recyclable were 169.45 tonnes/year papers and carton, 59.49 tonnes/year plastic material, and 11.82 tonnes/year metals (can). These materials should be collected separately (source separation) and can also be a means of income generation to the institute.