Solid Waste Systems Planning

Abstract

Preceding chapters have discussed the different unit operations involved in solid waste disposal and resource recovery systems. In order to provide the best possible service to society, these systems must be efficiently integrated within the environment in which they must function. Such integration requires that the components of the systems be selected and combined in order to achieve their intended purpose and contribute to overall environmental improvement. This chapter reviews some of the basic planning methodologies currently used in the solid waste disposal and resource recovery fields and indicates how they may be used to develop efficient, integrated systems. Since attention has focused on these methodologies only recently, much of the following discussion reflects the direction in which planners and decision makers are moving rather than the current state of planning techniques.