Reducing the Waste Volume and Leachate through Designing and Producing an Indoor Waste Compactor

Introduction: Increasing the volume of waste leads to an increase in waste collection, transportation and final removal costs. Also high percentage of humidity leads to the destruction of collection and transportation machines and to increasing the leachate produced in landfill site and polluting the soil and surface and underground water. So there are several attempts to solve these two problems. This study was to design and produce a unique bin which extracts, reduces and collects leachate from urban wastes and also reduces dry wastes volume. Methods: This applied study was conducted to design and produce an innovative indoor mechanical waste compactor for the first time in Shahroud University of Medical Sciences in Iran within 6 months of time and cost about 500 dollars. To test the effectiveness of the device, experiments (3 times) were performed using dry and wet wastes. After filling the tank with 18 liters of waste and triggering the force transmission crow (for moving compactor sheet) by a 30- year- old, 60-kilogram person, the humidity percentage and the volume before and after the compaction were measured. Results: This device is capable of making a notable decrease in volume of waste and separating waste humidity up to 45 percent of initial amount (in average). Repeating the experiment with dry waste also showed the capability of device up to 40 percent in waste volume (in average). Conclusion: This waste bin can extract, reduce and collect a lot of leachate from solid wastes and thus reduce its environmental impacts and remove problems of wastes collection process