Carbon and Nitrogen Flow in Jeram Sanitary Landfill Selangor Malaysia

In 2011, 736,644 tonnes was disposed at Jeram Saninary Landfill (JSL) while in 2012 about 819,840 tonnes of waste was landfilled. Domestic waste, bulky waste, garden waste and domestic sewage sludge are generic classification of waste landfilled in JSL. Problems of data quality and availability cause difficulties for planners and decision makers in comprehending waste production information in order to formulate appropriate management strategies. Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is a framework to quantify material flow at substance level with limited data. Substance Flow Analysis software or STAn has been applied in the mass balance study for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) flow in JSL. Biomass materials for example paper, food and garden waste, wood and textiles, constitute 62 % of the MSW. The results show that the largest portion of the waste disposed in JSL is organic waste, particularly kitchen waste (32%). Material flow determination for C and N showed that, 29% of the organic C released to atmosphere via landfill gas while less than 1% released via leachate. In a year study, more than 70% of the organic C total-N, (almost 80%) was still inside landfill body.