Paper No.
669
Fig. 4 Experimental Setup for Segregation of
Fractions Retained on 37.5 mm and 16 mm
The material passing 37.5 mm is then further
passed through 16 mm sieve. The MSW retained
on 16 mm is again separated from plastics, papers,
textiles etc by air blowing as discussed above.
Like earlier, the aggregates and other heavier
material falls similarly. The MSW fractions
retained on 37.5 mm and 16 mm after air blowing
is shown in Figs. 5 & 6 respectively.
Fig. 5 MSW Fraction Retained on 37.5 mm
Fig. 6 MSW Fraction Retained on 16 mm
Before development of segregation methodology,
different segregated fractions were studied for
Journal of the indian Roads Congress, July - September, 2017 83
their basic geotechnical characteristics to evaluate
their suitability in embankment construction as
discussed in Section 5.
4. COMPOSITION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID
WASTES
Composition analysis of different fraction of
MSW was carried out to know the amount
of different constituents viz. soil, plastics,
metals, textiles, papers etc. About 30-40 kg of
MSW passing through each 80 mm, 35 mm,
16 mm, 4 mm sieves were collected randomly
during segregation process at plant. Different
constituents were separated manually and
weighed (Fig. 7). A typical composition of
different constituents for passing/retained on
80 mm sieve (10 years old MSW sample) is
shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 7 Manual Separation of MSW
Passing 80 mm Sieve
The percentage of soil content increases as MSW
is successively segregated through 80 mm, 35 mm,
16 mm, and 4mm. The soil content which was about
52% retained on 80 mm sieve increases to 100%
when it was passed through 4 mm sieve. Other
than soil, plastics and textiles were observed to be
major constituents in different segregated MSW.
The percentage content of metals, wood, paper,
rubber, glass is observed to be less than 1%. There
is no significant variation in soil content or other
constituents with the age of MSW. It is observed
that the amount of plastics and other constituents
sharply reduces when it is passed through 80 mm
sieve (50% to 15%). With the successive sieving,
this amount reduces and becomes negligible when
it is passed through 4 mm sieve (Fig. 9).