Characterization of solid household waste in Conakry, Republic of Guinea

Abstract

This research focuses on the characterization of household solid waste from the city of Conakry in the Republic of Guinea, in order to propose one or more recovery channels. To this end, the study was carried out by municipality and by season. The collection was provided by the Albayrack company and sent to our place of work. A manual and meticulous sorting is carried out for the characterization of the waste. The analysis of the physico-chemical parameters (density, electrical conductivity, average pH, moisture content of the fermentable material, lower calorific value PCI, carbon/nitrogen ratio) was carried out on samples obtained in applying the quartering method.

This characterization of household solid waste has made it possible to understand that the MSW of the city of Conakry are composed of: 44% organic waste, 20% plastic, 4% glass, 8% paper / cardboard, 5% metal, 5% wood and 14% other.

According to the results of the characterization of the DMA (sorting by category presented in figure 4) acquired from this study, we note that the DMA of the city of Conakry present a diversity of materials, the majority of which can be recovered or reused and by consequently the waste of resources decreases and pushes the development of the economy. Thus, this study allowed us to divide into 4 groups the MSW capable of being recovered or recycled and are presented as follows: Waste recoverable by composting, methanization, recycling and storable. These recovery strategies would reduce household solid waste dumps by 80% in the City of Conakry (Guinea).