title: Assessment of sampling and chemical analysis of source-separated organic household waste.
abstract: The quality of the waste sampling procedure and chemical analysis was evaluated in a research program on characterization of organic waste obtained after disc screening of source-separated organic household waste. The sampling procedures focused on a truckload of waste and involved several steps of subsampling including shredding, mixing, blending, high-speed-blending, drying and milling prior to analysis of the organic waste with respect to ash content, crude fibers, crude fat, crude protein, sugar, starch, enzyme-digestible organic matter, P, N, C, H, S and calorific value. The statistical evaluation of the procedures involved 10 samples of the same truckload of waste obtained by splitting the sample at each level in the procedure according to a staggered, incomplete nested statistical design. Furthermore, one sample was analysed six times over a period of approximately one year. The statistical evaluation showed that no single step in the sampling procedure contributed with excessive variance and that the variance caused by the sampling procedure was approximately the same as the variance in the chemical analysis observed over a year. The variance varied with the analytical parameter but for most parameters the uncertainty was satisfactorily low (of the order of 3-10% expressed as the relative standard deviation, which is considered to be satisfactory for waste characterization).
authors.affiliation: Water and Environmental Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden. jes.la_cour_jansen@vateknik.lth.se
authors.forename: Jes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: la Cour Jansen
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Spliid
authors.forename: Trine Lund
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Asa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Svärd
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods; D004602:Elements; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D006795:Household Products; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis; D011786:Quality Control; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D004602:Elements; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D009930:Organic Chemicals