Subject	Waste Management and Disposal
Specific subject area	Physico-chemical characterization and comparison of rural and urban organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) samples for a one-year period.
Type of data	21 Tables and 7 Figures
How data were acquired	Datasets for rural and urban OFMSW were acquired using standard physico-chemical analyzes (methods in experimental design chapter) and instruments: •Fresh mass (FM) and dry matter (DM) contents through oven drying (UNP 700, Memmert, Schwabach, Germany) •Organic dry matter (oDM) contents with a muffle furnace (AAF 1100, Carbolite, Neuhausen, Germany) •C, H, N contents through elemental analyzer (vario MACRO cube, elementar, Langenselbold, Germany) •Trace elements (TE) through inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) (Spectro Blue, ASX-260 auto sampler, SPECTRO Analytical Instruments, Kleve, Germany) The procedure for the organoleptic examination of OFMSW was based on sampling protocols following [2] and subjective assessments during the sampling process.
Data format	Raw, processed (mean values, aggregated) and analyzed data within this article; Excel spreadsheet in the Appendix for supplementary data on the sampling area, organoleptic examinations and ICP-OES analyzes
Parameters for data collection	Each sample collected in the course of the year 2018 was immediate processed (drying, sorting, crushing) and stored airtight in dry state until further experiments were carried out. Due to the year-round sample collection, physico-chemical analyzes were executed with the total number of samples in 2019. This procedure was chosen to optimize the sample handling. The whole amount of OFMSW was dried for the DM content determination of each sample. The repetition number varied between double and ninefold depending on the volume of the available drying vessels. The sorting analyzes and consequently the determination of impurity levels was done based on dry OFMSW samples. All impurities were excluded from all further chemical analyzes. Elemental compositions and oDM content analyzes were done in triplicate or quadruplicate for each sample. A suitable sampling process for OFMSW as a complex material with different ingredients and varying optical properties was a crucial factor for the data quality. A drum vehicle constantly mixed the total amount of OFMSW during the collection process. This procedure increased the homogeneity of the OFMSW amounts and facilitated the sampling process. However, detailed information on the sampling are and the established collection scheme can be found in the original research paper [1].
Description of data collection	An extensive and year-round dataset on the physico-chemical properties of rural and urban OFMSW. In Germany, OFMSW is a typical municipal solid waste that is collected separately via green or brown biowaste bins. The data collection includes the following parameters: organoleptic examination, DM contents, impurity concentrations, oDM contents and concentrations of 37 major, minor and trace elements (C, H, N, O, Al, Ag, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sr, Ti, Tl, V, Zn, Ga, In, Si, P, S). In total, 42 samples (n = 22 for rural and n = 20 for urban OFMSW) were analyzed. Mean values and boxplot data for each elemental concentration are therefore based on 88 (rural) or 80 (urban) single measurements.
Data source location	All OFMSW samples were collected in the municipality of Tübingen, which is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Urban OFMSW samples originated from the inner city of Tübingen (Kernstadt), while rural OFMSW samples were collected in surrounding villages (Kilchberg, Weilheim, Kreßbach, Bühl). In the municipality of Tübingen, the OFMSW amount of each garbage truck collection was transported to the central collection site (Schinderteich), where the OFMSW was temporarily stored as a heap on a concrete surface. Therefore, the sampling was conducted at the central collection site (Schinderteich) of the Waste Disposal Association and Waste Management Corporation of the administrative district of Tübingen.
Data accessibility	Data are available in this article with additional data in Appendix
Related research article	Sailer et al. (2021), Characterization of the separately collected organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) from rural and urban districts for a one-year period in Germany, Waste Management, Volume 131, July 2021, p. 471-482, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2021.07.004