Household waste sampling

Abstract

How can a representative sample of household waste be obtained? An experiment is being carried out in Niort on two types of dustbin. The green dustbin contains biodegradable waste and cardboard: the grey dustbin contains the rest. The differences between households are measured by taking 15 samples on the street. The accuracy of these results is calculated using a sample taken from a skip. The accuracy of the separation coefficient of the selective collection is evaluated using the BILCO computer program. A comparison of the standard deviations obtained by the two methods shows that the sampling per skip is much more accurate. Sampling on the street will be reserved for special cases where it is not possible to ensure that samples are preserved.