Constructed Wetlands for Industrial Wastewater Treatment

13Solid Waste (SW) Leachate Treatment using Constructed Wetland Systems

K.B.S.N. Jinadasa¹, T.A.O.K. Meetiyagoda² and Wun Jern Ng³

¹Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

²R&D Unit, CETEC Pvt Ltd, Kandy, Sri Lanka

³Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

13.1 The Nature of Solid Waste (SW) and SW Leachate

Solid wastes are any discarded or abandoned materials and can be solid, semi-solid, or containerized gaseous and liquid materials. In the urban context, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), commonly referred to as trash or garbage, comprises everyday items used and then discarded. Such items include product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, paint, and batteries. These can originate from homes, schools, hospitals, and commercial premises. A typical MSW gross composition is given in Table 13.1, where the largest component is organic materials. MSW composition varies even at a particular site; Tables 13.2 and 13.3 show such a variation at a site in Punjab, India. In Table 13.2, the largest component is the compostable materials and water, while nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium percentages are relatively low (Table 13.3) [1, 2].

Table 13.1 Typical MSW gross composition [1].

Component	Percentage (wt. %)
Organic materials	40
Unrecyclable plastics	10
Unrecyclable materials	30
Agriculture waste	20

Table 13.2 Composition ...