CHAPTER 2
REFUSE COLLECTION AND
STORAGE
Introduction
• To properly manage the refuse
generated in town and municipal
centers, it is important to collect all the
generated refuse preferably at the sites
of production prior to its transfer to the
treatment and disposal sites.
• This chapter describes methods of
collection and storage of refuse between
the production and treatment sites.
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Storage of Refuse
• Storage of refuse may be defined by the
activities and facilities necessary from the time
and spot of refuse production until those of
collection.
• The efficiency and effectiveness of solid waste
collection is intimately related to the method of
household or communal storage system.
• It is therefore of great importance within the
objectives of city planning to consider with due
care the problems of refuse storage in order to
increase the refuse collection efficiency.
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Storage of refuse (Cont’d)
• Refuse storage usually start from the
neighbourhood of the source, then
transferred to intermediate containers and
finally into large containers from which
refuse is collected.
• Refuse in intermediate containers have to
be emptied quite often due to either
• small size of the container
• the putrescibility and bad odours of the garbage
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• Storage of refuse (Cont’d)
– The most common type of storage is the bin
system in which the size and make of the bins
varies quite often depending on
• where the bin is intended to be located
• the income level of the owner
• the quantity of refuse generated.
– The most typical bins used in Tanzania
ranges from “matenga” to SIDO made bins of
0.1 m3. 4
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• Storage of refuse (Cont’d)
– Receptacles for the temporary storage of
refuse should be designed specifically for
the waste to be stored. The bins should be
• sufficient in number and/or size to store the
total volume of refuse generated within the
collection period of 4 to 7 days
• equipped with tightly closing covers to prevent
entrance of flies and escape of foul odour
• built of non-corroding materials
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• Storage of refuse (Cont’d)
– A household paper-bag container system of
collection has been used widely in several
European Communities (Rogus, 1962).
– the application of plastic and paper bags is
possibly suitable in such places as
hospitals, camping areas, etc.
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REFUSE COLLECTION AND STORAGE
Paper-bag container system
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Separation of refuse
– Separation of refuse required depends largely
upon the method of disposal to be utilized.
• Garbage may be segregated from ashes and rubbish
to allow its utilization as hog feed
• Non-combustible wastes may be separated from
combustible materials where incinerators are to be
used
– Although separation has the advantages of
facilitating the final disposal, it has the
disadvantage of increasing the cost of
collection. 8
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• Separation of refuse (Cont’d)
– Special equipment and workers are also
necessary to collect each type of material,
and each pick-up route must be traveled
more than once.
– Where no separation is required and
frequency of collection service is provided,
a single container may be utilized for
storing the mixed refuse.
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Point of refuse collection
– The location of the refuse containers for
collection can have an important bearing on
the speed and cost of collection service.
– Usually refuse is dumped by the collector
into a transfer can or large metal barrel
which is then carried to the collection.
• However, this procedure is more expensive than
street collection.
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Design criteria for refuse storage
– The basic parameter for estimation of refuse storage
capacity is the refuse volume generated.
– since this parameter cannot be reliably estimated, the
following sub-parameters may be considered for
determination of refuse storage volume (V r), to be
provided to the community.
• The specific refuse weight, W
– This value usually varies from 0.17 to 0.49 kg/cap/d.
The average value is probably 0.325 kg/cap/d in
urban areas of Tanzania. However, conservative
values of 0.25 and 0.50 kg/cap/d may be used for
squatter and serviced areas respectively.
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Design criteria for refuse storage (Cont’d)
• The bulk density of the refuse, δ
– This parameter seems to be about 300 kg/m3 in some
municipalities in Tanzania except in Dar es Salaam
where the value was as high as 550 kg/m3 is probably
due to high proportion of fine dust.
• Frequency of collection of refuse, f
– This depends on refuse, size of containers and number
of refuse collection trucks in operation.
– The Frequency of collection of refuse practiced at
present is averaged to twice weekly from residential
areas in the city center.
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Design criteria for refuse storage (Cont’d)
• Frequency of collection of refuse, f (Cont’d)
– In other areas such as squatters, domestic refuse is
irregularly collected, usually only once a week.
– In other parts of the city, refuse is not collected at
all in due to unavailability of refuse collection
vehicles.
– However, as a temporary measure to clean the city,
service is hired from some private companies whose
collection activities are using human-driven carts
and scrap lorries.
– As a recommendation, refuse should preferably be
collected twice a week in residential areas to avoid
bad smell from putrescible matter.
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• Design criteria for refuse storage
(Cont’d)
• Frequency of collection of refuse, f (Cont’d)
– In business and market areas where large
quantities of refuse is generated, daily collections
are necessary.
• Variability of refuse production, V
• Degree of filling refuse containers, d
• Number of inhabitants, n 14
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• Design criteria for refuse storage
(Cont’d)
– Based on the assumption that
• refuse is collected once a week
• containers are filled to 90% capacity
• variation of refuse production is 20%
– the storage capacity of refuse container for
a family of six people will be
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Design criteria for refuse storage (Cont’d)
W V
Vr f n
d
0.5 1.2
7 6
350 9
3
0.08 m
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Design criteria for refuse storage
(Cont’d)
– The refuse containers available in the market
have a capacity of 0.1m3 produced by SIDO.
– The capacity of these bins is theoretically
adequate to accommodate generated
provided that refuse is collected once weekly.
– However, spare bin is recommended for each
household as a buffer capacity in case of
failure in the collection processes.
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Spare to be provided for refuse storage
When the bins or large containers are
centrally located such as in block of flats,
hotels, etc. attention should be paid to the
design of the storage site for the bins.
The site for the bins should be:-
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Spare to be provided for refuse storage
(Cont’d)
– Large enough to store the required number of
bins or containers even in the future.
– The storage site should be easily accessible
from the flats as well as from the street.
– Enough space has to be provided for
shunting, loading and unloading of
containers especially when large
containers are used.
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Collection of Refuse
For hygienic reasons, the required frequency
of refuse collection depends on the climate,
especially on the temperature: the higher the
temperature, the faster organic constituents of
the refuse undergo bacterial decomposition
and give rise to foul odours.
Frequency of collection is also influenced by
the quantity of refuse generated, storage space
for refuse and aesthetics of the surroundings.
The collection of refuse must be done in such
a way as to avoid nuisance of the public and of
the crew.
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Collection system
There are generally three different collection
systems namely:
1) The emptying system, where standard bins and
containers up to a receptacle volume of 1 to 2m3 are
emptying on the truck. Bins of larger size are not
economical as they increase haulage time and number
of operation crews. This method is common in the world
over, and in fact is the most widely used method in
Tanzania.
2) The Second system is relay collection system. This
system is applied to large containers greater than 2m3
of volume. Collection is performed by loading the
containers by means of built-in loading devices (Fig 8.1)
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Collection system
(Cont’d)
Figure 2.1: Schematic representation of a collection car for
the relay system.
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Collection system (Cont’d)
3) The one-way system, applied when
refuse is stored in paper, plastic sack,
“Matenga”, etc. In this system, the
container together with the refuse are
collected for disposal.
This system is applicable in market areas
where “matenga” are usually readily
available for collection of refuse.
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Collection Equipment
The equipment used in various cities for the collection of
refuse differs considerably in size and character. To achieve
sanitation requirements:
The equipment should include a suitable cover to prevent
the exposure of the contents, except during loading and
unloading.
The vehicle should be of watertight construction and
facilitate through cleaning.
Other consideration in equipment selection include:
Truck capacity
Type of waste collected
Manpower requirements
Operation cost of the truck
Easiness and cost of maintaining the vehicles
Road conditions
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Required number of collection trucks
• The collection capacity of trucks may be estimated
from the capacity, number of trucks available and
number of trips per day each truck makes. This is
mathematically expressed as:-
n
C Vi N i i Ti
i1
where
C = The total collection capacity
V = Volume of truck type i
N = number of trucks of type i
B = compaction factor of truck type i
T = number of trip truck type i can make.
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Required the total collection capacity
Solved on board
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Required number of collection trucks
(cont’d)
• The filling capacity of trucks is usually 80% of
its total capacity in Municipalities in Tanzania.
This factor should also be taken into account
when estimating the total collection capacity of
the trucks.
• Another important factor to be considered is the
number of trucks in operation in since a part of
the trucks has to be serviced or repaired.
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Required number of collection trucks (cont’d)
Example:
Refuse collection cars available:
Five, 12m3 non-compaction truck which makes 2
trips/day
Seven, 8m3 non-compaction truck which makes 3
trips/day
Three, 5m3 non-compaction truck which makes 2
trips/day
Four, 10 m3 compaction truck with β = 1.5 which makes 3
trips/day
Available collection capacity assuming that trucks are
filled to 80% capacity, 30% of capacity is out of
operation and trucks work for 5 days a week 28
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Required number of collection trucks
Example (cont’d).
Solved on board
Whereas if the specific refuse volume is 1.9 l/cap/d
and that 3/5 of the population is serviced weekly
and 2/5 bi-weekly, the number of 10m3 non-
compaction trucks required for a population of 300
000 people is calculated as follows:
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Required number of collection trucks
Example (cont’d).
Solved on board
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Required number of collection trucks
Example (cont’d).
Taking into account that 30% of the cars are out of
operation and that the degree of filling is 80%,
then the required number of collection trucks is
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Required number of collection
trucks
Example (cont’d).
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Estimation of number of workers
required for collection of refuse
The number of workers required for refuse
collection may be estimated from the yearly
loading work one worker is able to perform.
The estimate of number of workers can be
based on the average number of bins
emptied per worker per day as shown by
table 2.1.
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Table 2.1: Loadings Estimation for various Bin Volumes
(Source: Kumpt et al., 1964).
Volume of bin Loadings per worker
(1) per day
110 100 – 170
50 600 – 900
35 700 - 1000
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Estimation of number of workers
required for collection of refuse
(Cont’d)
The yearly volume loaded by one worker may be
estimated as follows:-
Working days per year: 300
Percentage of workers present 80%
Degree of filling of bins 90%
Loading per worker per year is therefore
0. 9
V wor ker volume of bin loadings per day 300
0.8
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Estimation of number of workers
required for collection of refuse
(Cont’d)
These estimates may not be valid in
Tanzania but may serve as a starting point.
Differences such as the supervision,
availability of bins, sizes of bins,
equipment, nature of wastes, weather
conditions, incentives, etc, may
significantly change the figures given
above.
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