IMPACTS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE ON AIR QUALITY IN DUHOK CITY, KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ
Recently and because of urbanization, industrialization and rapid population growth, the global per capita generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) is projected to reach approximately 2.2 billion tonnes by the year 2025. In developing countries like Iraq including Kurdistan region, in excess of 80% of municipal solid waste (MSW), usually MSW composed of plastics, food waste, glass, paper, metals, and textiles, materials., garden residues and other materials in different percentage are directly dumped into the landfill without separation and recycling process, that’s leads to the generation of landfill gas (LFG), Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the Kuashe landfill in Duhok were quantified by assessing the outcomes of physical, chemical, and microbial processes occurring within the waste by using the portable gas detector (JD-3002) during two consecutive year 2021and 2022. Results indicate that’s the per capita generation of MSW is 0.87 kg/person/day and the highest percentage of MSW in Duhok is food residual 47%, therefore Kuashe landfill is became an active source of greenhouse gases specially CH4 and CO2 in Duhok city, which is positively accelerating climate change in the region. A seasonal variation in CH4 and CO2 emission from the landfill were observed during both year of the study, which is mainly because of the variation in meteorological conditions like temperature, precipitations, wind speed and variation in soil conditions from one season to another.
MSW, Air Quality, CO2, CH4, Climate Change.