The identification and health risk assessment of odor emissions from waste landfilling and composting

Abstract

Odor nuisance is the main incentive for Not In My Back Yard campaigns around municipal solid waste (MSW) waste disposal facilities, and the odor identification is of significance for the understanding of the odor properties from MSW with different disposal methods. In this study, odor emissions from different stages at two large-scale working MSW disposal facilities, i.e., landfill (LF) and compost plant (CP), were distinguished with the same MSW feedstock in one city. It was found that CP suffered the heavier odor pollution and the characteristics of odorants changed significantly, especially the pile-turning workshop. Sulfides and aromatics were the main concentration contributors for LF, while that for CP were NH₃ and oxygenated compounds. Significant correlations between odor concentration and halogenated compounds, sulfides (r² = 0.945, 0.898, p<0.05, n = 12) were merely observed in CP. The priority odor pollutants of LF were H₂S, benzene and NH₃, while that of CP was NH₃, ethyl acetate and benzene with a descending order. With regarding to their contributions for occupational exposure, the carcinogenic risk was negligible for these facilities, but H₂S of LF might bring non-carcinogenic risk to on-site workers.

Keywords: Compost plants; Exposure assessment; Landfills; Odor identification; Priority odor pollutants.