Characterization of Household Solid Waste and Management in Tripoli City—Libya

Abstract

Waste stream characteristics must be understood to tackle waste management problem in Tripoli city, Libya. It is recognized that information on both quantity and composition of generation waste is important for the effective planning of household waste handling infrastructure. So, this study is aimed to evaluating the generation, composition and density of household solid waste in Tripoli city, Libya. The study is carried out according to the Annex 2.1 of: WHO 1996. It was conducted during one week in summer, autumn and winter 2011/2012. The daily household solid waste generation assessment has been carried out for 150 Libyan families where 947 people in three main parts of Tripoli city have been chosen randomly. A questionnaire was prepared according to Buenrostro et al . 2001 and Raje et al . 2001 using door-to-door surveying. The result showed that the average of total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were 1415 kg, 0.64 kg/person/day, 19.3 m 3 and 74.4 kg/m 3 respectively in Tripoli city. Household solid waste contains 36.3% organic matter and 32.5% recyclable materials (glass, paper, plastic, metals). The total generation quantity, daily generation rate, total volume and density were in Tripoli city agreed with those for African and Arabic countries. But the problem is that Tripoli suffers from insufficient municipal solid waste management and lack of sanitary landfills.