title: Characteristics and management of domestic waste in a rural area of the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: In the rural area of the Tibetan Plateau (RATP), the characteristics of domestic waste, people's environmental awareness, people's willingness to pay and their influence factors were firstly studied by questionnaires, field samplings and laboratory tests. The results showed that, in the RATP, the generation of domestic waste was 85 g•d-1 per capita and it was mainly composed of plastics, inert waste, kitchen waste, glass and paper. The waste bulk density, moisture content, ash, combustible and low calorific value were 65 kg•m-3, 19.25%, 44.90%, 35.85% and 10,520 kJ•kg-1 respectively. These characteristics are influenced by income sources and geographical position to some extent. Classified collection should be promoted widely on the household and the village basis. Compost, fermentation, landfill, bioreactor landfill and semi-aerobic landfill have been approved as effective techniques to treat domestic waste, except incineration. The distance of 50-800 m between each collection facility and the disposal fee of around $0.8 per month per household are suggested. For suburbs or large population villages, it's better to treat domestic waste by the centralized way. But for the remote rural areas, a decentralized way is proposed. Significantly, the educational and economic influence should be considered into an effective domestic waste management program.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current situatio n of the environment in the rural areas of the Tibetan Plateau (RATP) was surveyed. There, the generation of organics and moisture of domestic waste were low but ash, recyclables, and combustibles were high. People's knowledge of domestic waste was absent but their participation in management was strong. Based on the current situation, compost, fermentation, and landfill were effective but incineration was inappropriate. Also, a localized mini landfill for a cluster of villages and or settlements was the best method there.
authors.affiliation: a State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, College of Environment and Civil Engineering , Chengdu University of Technology , Chengdu , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: b Faculty of Natural Science , Tibet University , Lhasa , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dan
authors.affiliation: c Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture , Chengdu , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guozhong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: c Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture , Chengdu , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lukun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: a State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, College of Environment and Civil Engineering , Chengdu University of Technology , Chengdu , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenlai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: a State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, College of Environment and Civil Engineering , Chengdu University of Technology , Chengdu , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018609:Tibet; D018505:Waste Management / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data