Smart Planning of Waste Management System in Saudi Arabia; Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Solid waste management is one of the most critical problems facing urban areas worldwide. It is quickly becoming a significant issue in emerging countries with high population growth. Waste collection is a time-consuming procedure requiring enormous sums of money and meticulous logistics management. The amount of household waste produced in Riyadh has fluctuated over the years, with the majority being dumped in landfills instead of using them. This inefficient method of waste disposal has several adverse financial and environmental consequences, as landfills take up a large area of the city and emit foul odors and infections. An innovative waste management system should be adopted to address these difficulties, beginning with waste reduction and trash disposal in modern engineered landfills. Waste management solutions include reducing, reusing, recycling, energy recovery, and disposal. This research will focus on recycling, recovery, and disposal since social awareness campaigns could implement the first two strategies to reduce and reuse waste. The analysis also gives a sufficient cost analysis for the proposed methodology. This study opens new avenues for incorporating the value recovery aspect into garbage collection planning and the use of new data capture technologies that allow municipalities to track the mix of recyclables contained in various trash systems.