Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) composition established studies are important to the proper management of waste in municipalities and communities. The composition of generated waste is extremely varied due to seasonal, lifestyle, geographic, demographic, and legislative impacts. These variations make it difficult to obtain an accurate and representative waste composition sample. In order to ensure the statistical significance of project results, a sufficient number of samples must be sorted and a sufficiently large sample weight must be correctly collected for sorting. The objectives of this project were to (1) identify composition of component generation; (2) analyze physical, chemical, and biological properties of wastes; (3) estimate materials recovery potential for recycling; (4) aid in the design of processing equipment. To accomplish this objective, a composition and property project was designed and implemented continuously for Taiwan, from February 2005 to December 2005. This project was planned to sample 39 municipal solid waste (MSW) sources (municipalities) in Taiwan once a season for every source and to analyze the physical and chemical compositions of MSW samples. Meanwhile, this project was also planned to sample and analyze each 3 residential area and municipal service area (office buildings) in Tai-Chung city for 7 days. MSW composition in Taiwan has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, accompanying changing lifestyles, higher living standards, and, more recently, a sharp increase in consumer packaging. Paper products made up the largest component of MSW generated (38.82%), and food scraps comprised the second-largest component (26.40%). Plastics were also a major component in MSW. The average content of plastics was 19.51% of the total MSW in 2005. The results showed that the trend of variation in plastics was decreased in the past 10 years. Metals and glass each constituted between 2 and 5 percent of the total MSW. Wood and yard trimming, rubber, leather, and textiles combined made up about 7% of MSW. Other miscellaneous organic wastes made up approximately 1 percent of the MSW in 2005. The average moisture content of the food scraps fraction was about 70 %, the remaining moisture being mostly associated with paper. The overall average moisture content in the MSW was found to be 54.56%. The combustibles made up a 90% of the MSW on average due to the low content of metals, glass, and other inorganic components. The average lower heating value (LHV) is about 1656.17 Kcal/kg. The results also showed the variation over past five year of moisture content and LHV. Accordingly, it is apparent that the dependency of the LHV on moisture content. The results obtained on MSW composition and properties will be useful in optimizing MSW collection, transformation, and disposal strategies and in studying the feasibility of introducing waste recycling ventures in the municipality of Taiwan. Based on observations during the Taiwan waste composition analysis project, it was concluded that a well-established database of MSW using the results of long-term sampling and analysis projects could reduce bias in results. This project also provided important information regarding consideration of trend in MSW management.

Refuse sampling ,proximate analysis ,ultimate analysis,energy content