Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Analysis of sampling results from 25 tons of MSW and recyclables sorted across New York State at 11 locations in 2021 found that the composition of the wastes were different from place to place even when measured by mean data for each location.
Parameter by parameter analyses found that recyclables comprise from approximately 18% (a narrow definition of recyclables) to 23% (a broader definition of recyclables) of disposed wastes. Paper tends to be the greatest element in the disposed waste stream, although food waste is the largest single component. Plastics are also a very large part of the disposed waste stream. Altogether paper-food-plastics comprised up to 75% of the disposed waste stream in some systems, although they were less than 50% of the wastes at one site.
There is little contamination of dual stream paper recyclables, but more contamination of most container dual stream recyclables. Overall, the contamination rate for single stream recyclables (a little less than 15%) seems to also fit the combination of dual stream recyclables streams.
Use of multivariate distance measures to compare the sampling results holds the promise of identifying (and quantifying) the similarities and differences of the samples as whole. This could be done in place of somewhat disjointed parameter by parameter comparisons that are very complicated to tie together to make a general understanding of the waste stream. Although these multi-variate portrayals of complicated data sets are difficult to envision, representations of the data sets appear to present compelling descriptions that may support wholistic understandings of the underlying waste characterizations.
Recommended Citation
Tonjes, David J.; Manzur, Sameena; Wang, Yiyi; Rahman, Mohammad; Firmansyah, Firman; Thyberg, Krista L.; and Heiwtt, Elizabeth, "New York State Waste Characterization" (2023). Technology & Society Faculty Publications. 33.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/techsoc-articles/33