Composition of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Generated by the City of Chlef (Algeria).

Abstract: The Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is one concern of cities in the world, notably in Algeria and specifically in the city of Chlef. Local authority faced these difficulties have more and more problems to bring local solutions to support an ever growing stream of waste. This support needs to organize the collection and sorting of waste generated by households, and the relevant elimination procedures other than dumping in landfill. The recycling of biodegradable materials by composting may be a possible way. Prior to justify this choice and to quantify the expected benefits for the environmental and agronomic areas, it is essential to proceed with the characterization of the MSW. Based on the zoning of the current collection of household waste as well as the sectorization of the different collection zones, sampling was performed on the dump trucks arriving on the controlled landfill of Meknassa, situated 9km from the center of the city. The method of characterization used is adapted from MODECOM (Method of Characterization of the household waste, the protocol recommended by ADEME in France), which distinguishes three size distribution fractions, big:> 100mm, medium: 100-20mm, fine: <20mm, and 13 categories (organics, paper, cardboard, plastics .). This operation is repeated for five zone of the municipality of Chlef, out of 5 campaigns spread over two years (2010-2011) according to the seasons. After this complete and detailed characterization of MSW collected in Chlef, and taking into account the biodegradable organic matter and humidity contents, the composting could be a solution for the region of Chlef which agricultural activities will be a natural outlet to compost product. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]