A comparison of chemical MSW compositional data between China and Denmark
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Due to the rapid growth in the amounts of municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries, many large cities are faced with a “garbage siege,” whereby waste dumping sites originally located far outside the conurbations are now surrounding these rapidly expanding cities, resulting in significant human and environmental impacts (Hu et al., 2012, Wu and Xu, 2013). To design a proper waste management system with reduced environmental impacts, knowledge of waste properties is important (Cleary, 2009). Waste properties are often described in terms of fractional waste compositions and chemical waste compositions. Fractional compositions determine the potential for recycling and energy recovery (Tai et al., 2011), while chemical compositions are essential for estimating pollutant potentials from different waste strategies (Manfredi et al., 2011, Yang et al., 2012, Yang et al., 2013). For example, higher plastic content will increase the heating values of MSW and subsequently make it more effective to recover energy by incineration. However, the fossil carbon contained in plastic fractions would induce higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when MSW is incinerated (Yang et al., 2012).
It is general knowledge that fractional waste compositions differ from one place to another and change over time, due to economic development, waste management policies, and energy supplies (Wang and Nie, 2001, Wei et al., 1997). Correspondingly, chemical waste compositions also change owing to the varied contributions of waste fractions. The chemical compositions of mixed waste can be measured by laboratory analysis (He et al., 2010, Huang et al., 2003, Zhang et al., 2009) or be calculated by combining fractional waste compositions in specific scenarios and the general chemical characteristics of individual fractions (Yang et al., 2012, Zhao et al., 2009a, Zhao et al., 2009b, Zhao et al., 2011). Fractional waste compositions can be obtained by on-site sorting and weighing, which is frequently conducted due to low technical requirements (Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development of the People's Republic of China, 2009). Laboratory analyzes of the chemical compositions of mixed waste are rarely reported in developing countries, as the sample preparation and analysis is labor-intensive and requires technical knowhow and analytical facilities. The same situation occurs for the chemical characteristics of individual fractions, which conversely often refer to existing datasets. Generally, the chemical characteristics of individual fractions consist of major parameters, e.g., moisture content, organic element content, heating values, and trace parameters, the latter of which usually refer to heavy metal content (Zhang et al., 2008). Heavy metals are usually contained in just a few specific items, for example over 90% of cadmium and mercury in MSW comes from batteries (Riber et al., 2009). The availability or non-availability of these materials in the waste can significantly induce the differences in heavy metal content. It is thus hard to estimate heavy metal content by employing the aforementioned methods. In existing studies, major parameters are often taken into account, whereas trace parameters are often left out. For this study, the major parameters are termed as “chemical characteristics” due to their data availability.
Presently, datasets for the chemical characteristics of individual fractions are extremely scarce. A series of chemical characteristics often referred to was from the handbook written by Tchobanoglous et al. (1993), modified from data obtained in 1966 based on waste in the USA (Kaiser, 1966). In 2007, a comprehensive study focusing on the chemical characteristics of household waste was performed in Denmark (Lagerkvist et al., 2011, Riber et al., 2009), the results of which are available through the EASETECH software package (Clavreul et al., 2014), a widely used tool for life cycle assessment of waste management. In the case of developing countries, there are no comprehensive studies published in this research field. Taking China as an example, researchers (Zhao et al., 2009a, Zhao et al., 2009b, Zhao et al., 2011) tend to refer to chemical characteristics reported in Western countries (Tchobanoglous et al., 1993). However, this may lead to mis-estimation of chemical compositions. For example, the moisture content of mixed MSW in Hangzhou, estimated by refering to Tchobanoglous et al. (1993), i.e., 43.2% (Zhao et al., 2009b), was remarkably lower than the actual measured values, i.e., 57.5% (Ni and Hong, 2005) and 56.5% (Zhuang et al., 2008), which could evoke subsequent incorrect findings in relation to heating values and the leachate generation potential of waste.
The primary aim of this study was to compile waste property data reported for Chinese cities, including fractional waste compositions, chemical waste compositions, and chemical characteristics of individual waste fractions. Fractional waste compositions in developing countries were additionally compared with those in developed countries and the causes of these differences were identified. The Chinese dataset was finally compared with a Danish dataset, by applying the data to four Chinese cities and contrasting the differences in results between the two datasets.
Section snippets
Fractional waste compositions
Fractional waste compositions for 18 Chinese cities were compiled (see details in Table 1). Datasets for megacities as well as smaller cities, and with a certain geographical distribution, are included. Datasets published in the last decade were preferred to older data. Since fractional waste compositions are potentially used for designing waste treatment systems, data were obtained for the remaining mixed waste after source-segregating recyclables in residential areas or waste treatment
Regional variance of fractional compositions
Fig. 1 compares fractional waste compositions between China and other developing countries as well as with developed countries. The data are clearly clustered in two groups, representing China and developing countries in one cluster and developed countries in another cluster. Non-degradable fractions (including plastics, non-combustibles, glass, and metal) contributed similarly in developed and developing countries but showed a large variation, ranging between 15% and 50%. The main difference,
Conclusion
The fast degradable fraction consisting of food waste was the dominant waste fraction in Chinese MSW (> 50% of ww), as was also the case for other developing countries. This was different from developed countries, where waste was found mainly to consist of slowly degradable (paper, wood, and textiles) and non-degradable fractions (plastics, non-combustibles, glass, and metal). Moisture content in mixed waste in China was usually higher than the values in developed countries. Also, a higher
Acknowledgment
The work was supported by the National Environmental Protection Standard Project (2015-4), and the Shanghai Technical Standard Projects (Nos. 14DZ0501500, DB31ZB5-15043).
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