Composition of solid waste in al Jabal al Akhdar, a mountain region undergoing rapid urbanization in northern Oman

Abstract EN

There is a lack of data on the generation and composition of waste in rural areas worldwide.

The present study analyzed the composition of solid waste in Al Jabal Al Akhdar, a rural mountain region in the Sultanate of Oman, which is presently experiencing a rapid rate of urbanization due to tourism development.

The solid wastes here are generated by the municipality collecting waste from residential, commercial, institutional and recreational areas, the military from a training camp and a few non-governmental private companies from their camps and hotels.

The whole load from each of the three sources was manually segregated each month from June 2013 – May 2014.

The results indicated that plastic is the dominant category in the wastes collected by the municipality and accounts for 26.7%, followed by paper (17.9%) and then food (14.4%).

Food is the dominant category in the wastes collected by the military and private companies and accounts for 36.5% and 45.5% respectively.

Management issues associated with solid waste are briefly considered.

The study concluded that the municipality should implement an improved system for the collection of plastic waste and initiate a system for recycling it; the military and private companies should reduce the quantities of food waste by improved planning and management of the catering services.