A case study on physiochemical characteristics of solid waste in UiTM Pulau Pinang / Rahayu Muslim

Municipal solid waste composition studies are essential to proper management of
waste for a variety of reasons including a need to identify sources of component
generation, to facilitate design of processing equipment, also to estimate physical,
chemical, and thermal properties of the waste. The study was conducted at UiTM
Pulau Pinang for the purpose on identifying the physiochemical characteristics of
solid waste generated here. This report focuses on solid waste generation from
Baiduri College, Perdana Complex, UiTM Hotel and Cafeteria. The methodology has
been divided into three phases: fieldwork; sampling and manual sorting, laboratory
work; ultimate analysis and data interpretation. Manual sorting used to separate the
waste by composition such as food waste, paper, plastic, tin cans etc. Analysis on
ultimate analysis, energy content and methane generation also been carried out in this
research. The major component of solid waste is paper (35%), and followed by food
waste (26%), and plastics (21%). The moisture content is influence by weather and
the characteristics of solid waste. The energy produced is influenced by moisture
content which is low moisture will increased the energy to resource recovery energy.
The most recyclable waste produce is paper and plastic with the highest value is
70.3% from total weight of sample on particular week. The result of this study shows
the level of awareness and 3Rs practice is low.
Keyword – physical characteristics, chemical characteristics, municipal solid waste,
solid waste management, recycling