Assessment of yard waste for biological treatment in the Mehran UET, Jamshoro

In the developed countries, working on the recycling and waste disposal by different methods are carried out in order to reduce the environmental as well as socio-economic consequences. The most important challenge for developing country is to provide clean quality of water, quality of air, and soil quality. But soil, water, air quality in Pakistan are deteriorated because of improper management of municipal solid wastes (MSW). The MSW is generated at the alarming rate in Pakistan because of over growing population and urbanization. Urban area of every city of Pakistan is not sustainable for citizen because of dumping and burning of MSW. The MSW is not a homogeneous mixture but it is heterogeneous mixture of various components such as putrescible, recyclable, combustible, hazardous etc. In this study, yard wastes were collected from departments as well as hostels of the university and quantified, characterized and assessed by using standard methodology. Also the percentage of individual components of yard waste including tree leaves, grass, garden trimming etc. and their characteristics like moisture contents, volatile matters, ash contents, as well as percentage of elements (C, H, N, O, S) were determined. The yard waste generation per day is determined in this present work that is 50.13 kg/day. The results and findings of the study reveal that huge quantity of yard waste is generated and dumped in an open environment without any treatment. Moreover, it has been concluded and recommended that the generated yard waste is suitable for biological treatment such as anaerobic digestion and/or aerobic composting rather than it’s openly dumping and/or burning.