Paper Title
A Study of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Composition of Abbottabad City

Abstract
Environmental pollution, one of the serious problems of the day could be attributed to the manifold increase in solid waste generation and its inappropriate disposal practices. Sustainable utilization of MSW incorporates recycling of solid waste, which in turn results in resource conservation and economic sustainability.MSW is tremendously variable in its composition, and that is because of variations due to seasons, income level and lifestyle of people, local geography.The purpose of this study is to determine the composition of MSW in Abbottabad city which may be, in turn, used to know the potential of energy production from solid waste, and possible industrial utilization. A field study was conducted at the Salhad landfill which serves the Abbottabad MSW. Total waste generation of Abbottabad city is calculated to be 105tons (winter) to 113.75tons (summer) daily. While the capacity, to collect & dump waste, of WSSCA &CBA is only 74tons daily. Some portion of the uncollected waste is being collected & carried to landfill by private contractors. The waste is collected and dumped in landfill site without any segregation or compaction (compaction in case of only waste carried by compactors).Standard test method ASTM D 5231-92 was used to find out waste composition for seven days and accordingly components were divided in various categories. Results showed that 39%of the total waste comprised of food waste and 16% waste was yard waste. Key Words - MSW, Abbottabad, Composition, Landfill, ASTM