Municipal solid waste composition determination in the City of Johannesburg

This paper aims at determining the composition of various waste components at Robinson Deep landfill site (LS). The waste composition study was conducted during the summer in 2015 at Robinson LS to evaluate the various component of wastes received at the site. This was done in order to determine the amount of organic wastes that are generated daily as a basis for waste to energy (WtE) proposition in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). The methodology used was in accordance with two international standards. Hands sorting were utilized and the samples were classified into nine broad categories. The categories include; paper, organics, plastics, metals, glasses, textiles, construction and demolition (C &D), special care and other wastes. The results of the analysis were classified into two, based on the services offered by the municipality (Dailies non-compacted and Round collected refuse (RCR) compacted wastes). From the results of the analysis of the waste components for dailies non-compacted wastes, Organic waste was 14% and for the RCR, Organic waste was 34%. The 14% organic waste generated from the dailies non-compacted waste was attributed to the high income level of people since as the living standard improves, people tend to buy packaged food items and the 34% organic wastes from the RCR was attributed to low income level of the people since people tend to prepare every basic meal.