Comparative analysis of environmental costs, economic return and social impact of national-level municipal solid waste management schemes in Thailand

Abstract

This research comparatively investigates fifteen national-level integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) management schemes and determines the most preferable MSW scheme that attaches equal importance to the environmental, economic, and social impacts. The fifteen schemes are one business as usual (BAU) scheme, seven composting- and seven biogas production-oriented schemes. All the MSW schemes rely on incinerators and refuse derived fuel (RDF) processing for waste disposal. The environmental impacts and costs are quantified by Stepwise2006 based on ecoinvent database. The economic return is evaluated based on the net present value of the construction and operation cost. The affected local community area is the indicator of public perception toward the waste disposal projects (i.e., social impact). The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to determine the most preferable scheme. The results showed that MSW combustion by incineration and RDF is the main contributor of environmental impacts. The environmental costs of composting schemes were lower than those of biogas production schemes. Total environmental cost of scheme 7 (i.e., 25% recycling, 50% decomposing, 5% biogas production, two incineration plants, and seven RDF plants) is the lowest (7492.63 billion THB2020). The cash inflow of BAU is lowest and the cash outflow is highest. In comparison with the biogas production schemes, the cash inflows and outflows of composting schemes are lower. Scheme 7 is the most preferable MSW management scheme, given the highest AHP priority score (0.228). Therefore, the composting-incineration-RDF scheme (scheme 7) should be adopted to treat biodegradable and combustible waste.