Solid waste characterization and recycling potential for Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) academic buildings

In many countries such as Malaysia, it is increasingly
more difficult to find suitable locations for landfills, which are accepted by the population. These circumstances are to be found all over the world and make new strategies for waste management necessary. Integrated solid waste management (ISWM) systems are one of the greatest challenges for sustainable development. For any ISWM system to be successful, the first step is to carry out waste characterization studies. Therefore, the study was conducted to characterize the quality and quantity of
generated solid waste at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)
academic buildings to suggest a recycling system with emphasis on recycling container size and arrangement. Six sampling points were selected at new academic complex and solid waste from those points was characterized for both term-time and semester break periods. Results have shown up to 80% of produced materials at academic building are recyclable while paper percentage is predominant with 40 and 33% during term-time and semester break, respectively. Food waste was detected in all samples which could lead cross contamination, value drop and development of odor and flies. The solid waste generation was varied between 8.8 to 2.4 kg/day in term-time and semester break, respectively. Therefore, a small or medium size threecompartment container system is suitable to be used in academic
building of the campus.