Municipal Solid Waste

Basics

• Often Abbreviated as MSW
• All solid waste produced by a group/facility
• Essentially all "trash" + recycling + solid compostables

Average Composition (USA Data Mainly)

Plastics

Study A

• According to this source
• Polyethelyne
  • LDPE 23%
  • HDPE 19%
• PP 14%
• PVC 6%
• Polystyrene 9%
• PET 10%
• Others 19%

Study B

• According to this source
• 12.8% PET
• 17.6% HDPE
• 23.9% LDPE
• 2.9% PVC
• 0.2% PLA
• 24.3% PP
• 6.6% PS
• 11.7% other (assuming thermosets, blends etc)

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on MSW