Organizing preliminary storage sites of organic material, waste fuels and recyclables and their separating distance from populated areas

Abstract

European Union directives have urged member countries to enhance the recycling and separation of waste fractions, and this has increased the number of temporary storage sites of recyclables and waste fuels. Spontaneous fires at temporary storage sites have become common and pose social/health/environmental risks. Storage sites should be sited sufficiently far from populated regions, so that the concentration of released pollutants from open fires falls below the critical air quality index before the plume reach the downwind population. In this study, the open-burn/open-detonation model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency was employed, and 540 simulations were performed for nine scenarios of open burning of household waste to estimate suitable sizes of storage heaps and adequate distances between storage sites and populated regions. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was performed for 1,080 additional simulations to determine the effects of variations in the burn rate, storage dimension and volume of the waste heap on the model output. The resulting chart can be directly employed by waste operators/environmental agencies to organize storage sites to minimize externalities due to open fires. Furthermore, using ArcGIS software, first-cut information of the total Swedish population facing the risk of hazards due to spontaneous fires was provided.