Characteristics of physical/chemical composition and content of heavy metals of MSW at Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

This study found that food wastes account for the greatest proportion of the reusable waste of Kaohsiung City (36.88%). Paper, food wastes, and plastic accounted for a high proportion. These results show that organic waste such as food wastes remained significant, with room for more promotion as a resource recycling task. In 2013, the weight percentage for combustible Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was at 95.59%. Incombustible metals and non-metals have less content in terms of percentage. The possible reason might be that valuable metals have been recycled. The average content of heavy metals from high to low came in this order: Pb > Zn > Cu > Cr > Cd. The average content of Pb was 155.10 mg/kg. Cd was at minimal level with an average content lower than 1.00 mg/kg. The average content of Pb was 147.84 mg/kg. Cd was at minimal level with an average content lower than 1.00 mg/kg. According to this research, the content of heavy metals in MSW was respectively 146.88 and 411.56 mg/kg for two samplings. The content of heavy metals were calculated at 5.21 and 15.92 tons, which is equal to 0.01% and 0.04% of the total amounts of MSW.