Municipal Solid Waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is also known as urban solid waste. It originates mostly from households. It is fairly obvious that MSW would normally consist of a wide range of different materials!
In the UK, most recyclable materials (paper, glass, plastics, tins etc.) are collected separately so the amount of these materials in the MSW should be minimal.
Some local authorities also collect biodegradable waste, which includes garden waste and food waste.
MSW can also potentially include commercial waste. This complicates the handling of the waste because commerical waste can contain potentially hazardous industrial material.
Within the UK, the rules for collecting and dealing with MSW have been changing significantly. The European Union Landfill Directive dictates that each year the targets for landfill are reduced. The 2009/10 target for the UK was 12 million tonnes. This reduces to 8 million tonnes in 2012/13 and then 5.5 million tonnes in 2019/20. These targets mean that more and more MSW each year needs to be dealt by recycling or reprocessing in some way.
There is of course one solution in not producing so much waste in the first place!
Banning certain substances and materials from landfill sites would also require alternate methods of reprocessing to be developed by the manufacturers of the materials being disposed of.
Households are responsible for a significant proportion of municipal waste - about 88.7 per cent in England in 2007/08. Sorting out the recyclable materials from the waste is a difficult but important task.
More municipal waste is now re-used, recovered, recycled or used to produce energy in England and Wales. The amount has risen from 21.5 per cent in 2000/01 to 44.5 per cent in 2007/08.
a typical pile of municiple solid waste
User: Alex Marshall 2004, Clarke Energy Ltd
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March 2010 - call for legislation to ban food waste from landfill sites. This is because of the need to reduce landfill waste and the 'better' solution of composting the food waste and recycling it.
References
UK Environment Agency - www.environment-agency.gov.uk
The Guides Network - recycling-guide.org.uk
Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme - www.defra.gov.uk/environment/economy/waste/landfill-scheme