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Abstract
Waste management is a distinct practice aimed at reducing its effects on health and the environment and increasing energy and material recovery. The urban waste management industry has been slow to adopt new technologies, such as sanitary landfills and incineration, which enable better treatment results. The aim of a thorough ecological-economic evaluation of different treatment technologies is to extract the maximum practical benefits from investments and to ensure the minimum environmental impacts of wastes. This paper compares four garbage treatment systems, including sanitary landfills systems, fluidized bed incineration system, grate type incineration system and the current landfills system in Liaoning Province, China. By considering the economic and environmental impacts of waste treatment and disposal, impact of emissions, and contribution of wastes input, this paper constructed an emergy-based urban solid waste model for evaluating the sustainability of the holistic systems. The results in Liaoning indicate that the human health losses caused by the harmful air emissions are ranked in this order: fluidized bed incineration > grate type incineration > current landfills > sanitary landfills, while the ecosystem losses are ranked: grate type incineration > fluidized bed incineration > sanitary landfills > current landfills. The electricity yield ratios are ranked: grate type incineration > fluidized bed incineration > sanitary landfills > current landfills. Taken together this suggests that in considering the incineration option, decision makers must weigh the benefits of incineration against the significant operating costs, potential environmental impacts, and technical difficulties of operating. Emergy analysis of the urban solid treatment systems can provide a set of useful tools which can be used to compare the comprehensive performances of different waste treatment processes for decision-making and optimizing the whole process.
Highlights
The environmental pollution and waste of resources caused by garbage has become one of the major challenges of urban development [1]
We introduced two new indices in order to evaluate the technical level of e-waste treatment in Macau
The results indicate that the human health losses caused by the harmful air emissions are ranked in this order: fluidized bed incineration > grate type incineration > current landfills > sanitary landfills, while the ecosystem losses are ranked: grate type incineration > fluidized bed incineration > sanitary landfills > current landfills
Summary
The environmental pollution and waste of resources caused by garbage has become one of the major challenges of urban development [1]. The principle of “harmlessness, reduction, resource” has become an inevitable trend for the disposal of municipal solid waste. A proper waste management policy should be developed based on the principles of sustainable development, according to which our refuse should not be regarded as something to eliminate but rather as a potential resource to be recycled [2]. An integrated waste management evaluation is needed. The traditional methods of residential garbage disposal include landfilling, combustion, and composting. Methane gas generated from landfilling can be combusted to produce heat, which in turn can be used to generate electricity. Waste can be directly incinerated or combusted to produce energy
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