Generation and Composition of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

The success of waste management requires accurate data on generation and composition of waste which is pivotal for the decisions towards the appropriate waste management system. At present there is no data available on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation and composition collected systematically in Oman. Hence, this preliminary study was conducted in Al-Multaqaa landfill, the only engineered landfill functioning in Oman. The main objective of this study is to determine the generation rate and composition of municipal solid waste with the intention of providing base line data for development of municipal solid waste management system. The samples were collected from the landfill in two different seasons, in summer and winter. The collected sample was sorted out into various components. Subsequently, the weight and volume of each component were measured and recorded. The daily generation of MSW works out to be 0.97 Kg /day/person by weight, 3.113 x 10-3 m3/day/person by volume with a density of 311.73 Kg/m3. The study results reveal that the MSW stream has the largest proportion of biodegradable and recyclable waste. If waste management options such as composting, recycling and energy recovery are to be practiced in the future, there is a greater possibility of reducing substantial amount of waste stream getting disposed to the landfill.