Detailed municipal solid waste composition analysis for Nur-Sultan City, Kazakhstan with implications for sustainable waste management in Central Asia
Abylkhani B. Guney M. Aiymbetov B. Yagofarova A. Sarbassov Y. Zorpas A.A. Venetis C. Inglezakis V.
May 2021Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
2021#28Issue 1924406 - 24418 pp.
A detailed characterization of municipal solid waste (MSW) beyond a standard compositional analysis may offer insights useful for improving waste management systems. The present paper contributes to the scarce literature in the field by presenting new data from a rapidly developing Central Asian city, the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan. Three sampling campaigns (each 1 week long) have been conducted at the city landfill over a 1-year period (2018–2019), and a detailed characterization for selected waste components and sub-components has been performed. The major fractions of MSW were organics (46.3%), plastics (15.2%), paper (12.8%), and diapers (5.9%). The detailed composition analysis showed high LDPE (low-density polyethylene) content (5.5%) mostly comprised of plastic bags (4.5%), transparent glass (3.2%), pharmaceuticals (0.4%), and fine (i.e., < 12 mm) organic fraction content (29%). The MSW generation rate of Nur-Sultan was estimated as 1.47 kg capita−1 day−1 based on the field collection as well as literature data. Among sustainable waste management recommendations addressed for Nur-Sultan and applicable to other cities in Central Asia, composting is recommended due to high organics fraction in MSW and its great potential to reduce the landfilled waste volume and to help valorizing the waste.
Composting , Landfill , Urban sustainability , Waste characterization , Waste generation rate
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Laboratory of Green Energy & Environment, National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Environmental Science & Technology Group (ESTg), Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Environmental Science & Technology Group (ESTg), Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
The Environment & Resource Efficiency Cluster (EREC), Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Pure & Applied Science, Lab of Chemical Engineering & Engineering Sustainability, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 33, Nicosia, 2220, Cyprus
ICP Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Karlsruhe, 76227, Germany
Laboratory of Green Energy & Environment
Environmental Science & Technology Group (ESTg)
Environmental Science & Technology Group (ESTg)
The Environment & Resource Efficiency Cluster (EREC)
Faculty of Pure & Applied Science
ICP Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH
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