An Eco-Balanced and Integrated Approach for a More-Sustainable MSW Management

Abstract

Strategies for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management can be sustainable only because of site-specific analyses and choices that take into account not only financial but also environmental costs. Generally, a correct approach should use different scenarios based on the environmental, social, economic and technological conditions of the specific area and on its expected potential. The aim of this paper is to presents an innovative model for the implementation of integrated MSW management approach which can result extremely useful where the MSW systems have to be refined or even designed such in the case of low-income countries. The proposed approach provides the best solid waste (SW) allocation/distribution among the available treatments and disposal options minimizing at the same time the total cost by means of an optimization procedure. The environmental impacts of potential scenarios are simultaneously estimated by means of a tailored Life Cycle Assessment procedure. The LCA tool in the model focus on the specific impacts from a SW management scenario that makes the model more explicit with respect to traditional LCA application. Additional tools allow, through site-specific numerical models, to provide also a preliminary evaluation of local impacts when required (e.g. atmospheric emissions). Such a model can be useful as a supporting tool in decision making for both governmental and non-governmental institutions involved in the planning of more sustainable eco-friendly strategies for MSW management.