Estimation of heavy metal transformations in municipal solid waste

The behaviour of heavy metals bound to municipal solid waste (MSW) and exposed to 2 decades of anaerobic waste stabilization processes have been estimated. Heavy metal solid forms in a waste degradation residue have been compared with a reconstructed waste similar to that initially disposed of in 1973. The initial waste was composed of a mixture of shredded MSW (95% dry wt.) and anaerobic sewage sludge (5% dry wt.). A sequential chemical extraction method has been used to fractionate the heavy metals into five categories of available and reactive solid forms. The results imply that these forms can be ascribed to approximately 30% of the total content of the heavy metals in the degraded waste and the portion of heavy metals bound to oxidizable solid forms seems to be higher in the degraded than the fresh MSW. The bulk of the remaining heavy metals are assumed to be less available and bound into resistant lattice structures, such as metal and polymer items. A comparison between fractionation patterns of the waste in this study and of a few sediments collected from different environments imply similarities between the fresh MSW and an oxic sediment from one site and the sewage sludge and anoxic sediments from another site. Fractionation patterns of the degraded waste are found to be quite similar to those of the anoxic sediments, except for Pb, Ni and Cd which are more similar to fresh MSW.