Guide for the characterization and quantification of solid waste

Abstract

The characterization of solid waste is an important basic stage in the management of solid waste, because it seeks to identify the sources, quantities and variations over time, as well as to observe the quality of the waste generated. The problem is that there are very few methods only to characterize municipal and urban solid waste, which are also difficult to carry out. Therefore, it is proposed that this guide presents a method to characterize and quantify in a simpler and more effective way not only municipal and urban solid waste, but also institutional, commercial and even farm waste, i.e. to know the individual components that constitute the flow of waste, usually based on percentage by weight.

Once the distribution of the components is known, they are quantified in order to obtain the production per person, also called per capita production (ppc) whose units are Kg/hb.day. Per capita production is particularly stratified in America, so that the higher the socioeconomic stratum of a country, municipality or neighborhood, the greater the waste generation. In Colombia, the capital cities have 6 strata, and the municipalities generally 3, being the 1 the lowest. It is concluded that for the quantitative method presented in this guide, when the result of the ppc obtained by calculations coincides with the ppc of the actual stratum in which the work is being worked, it confirms that the quantification was well realized and therefore the characterization is also correct.