Abstracto

Estimation of Polyvinylchloride (PVC) in Household Solid Waste at Tripoli-Libya: A Case Study

Abduelmajid K. Najjar, Mohamed A. Elmelah, Faiz K. Bannani and Fawzia M. Ghania

Population and economic growth usually lead to the increase of solid household waste volume in addition to great changes in quality and specifications of materials, and tremendous increase in some contents particularly plastic waste. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most widely used plastic materials, which accumulate in landfill after end-life uses. Solid waste management has drawn special attention to this material because it contains varied types and quantities of additives. PVC and its additives display potential detrimental impact on the environment and human health as moved gradually from production and service life to disposal (buried and incinerated). PVC waste is expected to rise due to increased application in several areas such as construction, demolition waste and household waste. In this work, field work survey and statistical study were carried out to estimate the percentage of total plastic and PVC in particular, in solid household waste in the city of Tripoli-Libya. To determine the main sample size, a random sample contained 34 portions was taken in one day from studied area. The main samples were collected for successive 6 days (85 portions). Sorting of plastic and PVC waste were performed on the bases of the information collected from plastic factories and by using fouriertransform infrared spectroscopic analysis. The results concluded that the weight percentages of plastic waste and PVC were about 10.52% and 1.36%, respectively. The percentage of PVC from plastic waste only was 12.94%. The calculated weight of plastic waste from the study area was 36.78 ton/day containing 4.70 ton/day PVC. The overall quantity of household solid waste in Tripoli was 550 ton/day collected in two sites, which generates 57.80 tons plastic waste that include 7.48 ton PVC.