Study on the compressibility of municipal solid waste in Hangzhou, China

Based on the investigation of eight waste transfer stations in Hangzhou, China, the component of municipal solid waste has been studied. The municipal solid waste is divided into three part, those are incompressible solid material, reinforced material that is difficult to be biodegraded and the material that is easy to be biodegraded. The proportions of these three parts are 35%, 15% and 50%, respectively. Laboratory test has been performed by using a new developed compression test instrument. The testing results show that the total compression is composed of three parts, those are stress compression, consolidation compression and creep compression. Besides, the consolidation compression could be divided into two parts, one is due to the discharging of water from the void of the municipal solid waste and the other is due to the discharging of water and air which are generated from the degradation of organic substance in municipal solid waste. The stress compression and the consolidation compression are about 80% to 85% of the total compression and the creep compression is about 15% to 20% of the total compression. The compression coefficient is 5.47, and the compression index is 1.27.