Evaluation of Reported and Measured Compositions of Household Solid Waste in Kuwait

Abstract

Nearly 2/3 of the total population in the affluent State of Kuwait include working expatriates. A significant percentage of these individuals are replaced annually by new incoming workers, often with differences in socio-economic and life-cycle traits. Naturally, this changing population composition affects—among other factors—the quantity and the mix of the daily generated solid waste by households. This paper reports the findings of a research study aimed at the determination of the quantity and mix of the current household solid waste in Metropolitan Kuwait. The paper also examines the compatibility between household-reported and landfill site-measured percent compositions of the daily solid waste. Findings point to a slight increase in quantity of the daily generated solid waste by households over the last four years. The study has also confirmed that, while households are reasonable estimators of the quantity of the solid waste they generate daily, their estimation of the composition of their solid waste suffers from gross inaccuracies.