Public Risk Perception Towards Power Generation by Municipal Waste Incineration

Abstract

Power generation by municipal waste incineration provides a template not only for waste reduction but also for energy recovery. However, incineration plants face considerably strong protests from local communities. In such context, this study investigates the public's risk perception towards an operating incineration plant by using a word-frequency-based decision making approach to provide insight into risk mitigation while enhancing public acceptance. An operating municipal waste plant located at Chengdu, Sichuan Province was used as a case study to examine the risk perception posed by the host communities. Face-to-face interviews through a structured questionnaire were applied to data collection. A word frequency analysis was used to identify the key factors that influence public's risk perception and construct a multi-attributive decision matrix for the risk assessment. Entropy-based fuzzy decision making was implemented to discriminate the risk semi-quantitatively. To alleviate possible conflicts, policy implications were given.