Quantitative evaluation of the sustainability or unsustainability of municipal solid waste options in Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Iran has been seeking to develop fully functional waste management strategies to address the problem of its rapidly growing cities. This requires proper evaluation to determine the most appropriate strategies to meet the goals of sustainable waste management. Environmental Impact Assessment is capable of contributing towards this goal. However, such assessments tend to involve a qualitative approach in the evaluation of the sustainability or unsustainability of potential options. Therefore, a suitable quantitative approach to evaluate sustainability/unsustainability is necessary. The paper applies a mathematical model to evaluate the sustainability of unmitigated options for a municipal solid waste disposal site in Tabriz, Iran. This was based upon rapid impact assessment matrix evaluation of the options. The model’s application determines whether the options are sustainable or unsustainable. The model application results indicate that all of the options were considered as unsustainable in an unmitigated state. The results for Tabriz were then compared and contrasted with results obtained by the authors for another MSW disposal site near Tehran. Based on this, there are questions as to the potential value of current waste management strategies. The paper concludes by stating that economic costs are the largest single barrier to achieving sustainable waste management. Furthermore, it is important to develop solutions which disposes and manages waste in a manner conducive to the long-term sustainability of the environment–human relationship.