This project was designed and implemented continuously for the sampling and analysis of municipal solid waste composition in Taiwan, from March 2009 to February 2010. This project was planned to sample 23 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. The objectives of this project were to establish the database of long-term physical and chemical characteristics of MSW and to evaluate the variation of MSW composition and property by careful sampling, sample preparation and the analytical techniques. Meanwhile, the performance of this project could be also useful in adopting the strategies of municipal solid waste management, developing the innovative technologies of recycling and recovery, and assessing the safe technologies of MSW disposal. According to the results of sampling and analysis, the major compositions of the municipal solid waste were paper, plastics, and food scraps. The composition content of the above waste was almost 93.59% of the total municipal solid waste. Paper products made up the largest component of MSW generated (38.95%, wet basis), and food scraps comprised the second-largest component (38.19%, wet basis). Plastics were also a major component in MSW. The average content of plastics was 16.45% (wet basis) of the total MSW in2009. The contents of metals and glasses of the total MSW were 0.58% and 0.89%, respectively. Wood and yard trimming, rubber, leather, and textiles combined made up about 4.11% of MSW. The results showed that the variation of composition in paper and plastics were increased in the past 10 years. However, the amounts of paper and plastics of the total MSW decreased significantly that resulted in amounts of MSW collection decreased in past decade. Meanwhile, the compositions of food scraps, metals and glasses of MSW decreased gradually every year. On the other hand, the types of paper of MSW included office paper, newspaper, corrugated paper, paper bag, paper container, and paper for toilet products, etc. In this project, approximately 67% of paper from MSW sampling was paper for toilet products. The overall average moisture content in the MSW was found to be 54.86%. This is due to the high moisture content of the food scraps fraction. The combustibles made up an above 40.73% of the MSW on average due to the low content of metals, glass, and other inorganic components. The average lower heating value (LHV) was about 1891 Kcal/kg. The analysis results of tested metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Zn) in combustible of MSW indicated that the tested metals concentrations, Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cr, were 38.15 mg/kg, 6.17 mg/kg, 9.43 mg/kg, and 4.63 mg/kg, respectively. Meanwhile, the Cd concentrations of combustible in MSW were below the instrument detection limit. Based on observations of this 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