Municipal Solid Waste Management System Research Articles

Optimal location of landfills and transfer stations for municipal solid waste in developing countries using non-linear programming

The design of Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems (MSWMS) is one of the fields where optimization techniques have been used in different places. The aim of this study was to develop a mathematical model for the optimization of MSW Transportation System, in order to assist waste management institutions, and local governments to minimise waste transportation time and cost. Non-linear Mixed Integer mathematical model, with the objective function to minimize the time and cost of waste transportation, was developed and solved using Microsoft Excel solver. The developed model was applied to a case study city situated in South Africa. The application of this model to this case study has provided an approximate decrease in total transportation cost per week of 2.04%. The novelty of this research lies in the simplification of the existing mathematical model and the development of a new approach to solve the non-linear model.

Analysis of waste management system reform in Russia

The article deals with the current problems of reforming the MSW management system in Russia, starting in 2019. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible for the legal regulation of waste reform. Russian Environmental Operator (REO) was created for organizational management. Methods of analysis of documents and secondary data were used to get acquainted with the experience of reforming the waste management system. The analysis was carried out at both the federal and regional levels. An institutional and functional analysis of the subjects of waste management in Russia is presented. The planned indicators of the garbage reform are defined - utilization up to 36% and processing up to 60. The analysis at the regional level is carried out on the example of several subjects of the Russian Federation: Moscow, the Moscow Region, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Primorsky Territory, the Kaliningrad Region. Having carefully analyzed the documents, the authors identified the main problems of the reform, such as the imperfection of the legislative framework and the lack of funding for the creation of an appropriate infrastructure.

Optimization in waste landfilling partitioning in Paraná State, Brazil

In this work, using the concepts of the Facilities Location Problem (FLP), an attempt was made to find the best configuration for clusters of municipalities, referred to here as consortia, for the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill network in Paraná State, Brazil, which is composed of 399 municipalities. The existing model has a number of deficiencies, including not meeting the entire demand of the state, an excessive number of small landfills and several non-contiguous consortia, resulting in higher unnecessary costs to the taxpayer. The main contribution of this article is to propose a model of territorial partitioning that does not depend on extra restrictions to maintain contiguous clusters. This was possible due to the use of the Haversine distance between each municipality as the cost variable in a p-Medians Problem (PMP) model. The data for the municipalities and MSW production were obtained from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and from the State Secretariat for the Environment and Water Resources (SEMA-PR) databases. The road distance between each municipality (shortest route) was consulted using the Google Distance Matrix API. Two simulations were conducted to determine the best configuration of this waste distribution network. The first simulation did not consider already existing landfills. In other words, an ideal situation was proposed that was impractical because there are already operational landfills in the state. It would be a feasible alternative if the objective was to implement a new network. This model reduced transport costs by approximately 49% compared with the current system. Moreover, it would cost 4.4% less to construct than the existing one. The second simulation considered the state’s operational landfills, altering only the customer base and respective capacities. It was concluded that it would be necessary to add 25 new landfills to fully meet the requirements of the state. In this more realistic simulation, transport costs were reduced by around 80% and the cost of its construction would be only approximately 6% higher than the current solution. Policy makers and urban planners will be able to use this optimization model in decision making regarding the improvement of MSW management systems and reverse logistics, allowing for improvements for serving citizens and reducing the environmental impact.

Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to Select Waste to Energy Technology for a Mega City: The Case of Moscow

In a mega city like Moscow, both municipal solid waste management and energy systems are managed in an unsustainable way. Therefore, utilizing the municipal solid waste to generate energy will help the city in achieving sustainability by decreasing greenhouse gases emissions and the need for land to dispose the solid waste. In this study, various Waste to Energy (WTE) options were evaluated using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to select the most appropriate technology for the Moscow region. The developed AHP model consists of 4 levels, which assessed four WTE technologies, namely landfill biogas, anaerobic digestion, incineration, and refuse derived fuel (RDF), using four criteria and nine subcriteria. The pairwise comparison was achieved by soliciting 16 experts’ opinions. The priority weights of various criteria, subcriteria, and alternatives were determined using Expert Choice Software. The developed model indicated that landfill biogas is the preferred option with a global weight of 0.448, followed by the anaerobic digestion with a weight of 0.320 and incineration with a weight of 0.138, while the least preferred technology is the RDF with a weight of 0.094. Sensitivity analysis has shown that the priorities of WTE alternatives are sensitive for the environmental and technical criteria. The developed AHP model can be used by the decision makers in Moscow in the field of WTE.

Life cycle-based, energy-related analysis for waste management strategies: a case study of two impact indicators in Pyongyang.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is regarded to be an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, which could result in a significant impact on climate change. This study conducted analyses of both cumulative energy demand (CED) and carbon footprint (CF) indicators per reference flow (RF) and identified the relationship between both the indicators, and additionally, it made some recommendations for MSW management strategies in Pyongyang, DPR Korea, based on life cycle thinking. This present study suggested using a hybrid CED indicator and the energy-related CF indicator for the analysis of the existing MSW management system, while applying system expansion for crediting the recycled materials, the energy recovery, and the compost/fertilizer. The result showed that the CED indicator in the MSW management system accounted for - 9,569.8 MJ/RF of primary energy savings in total, corresponding to the avoided emissions of - 1,522.89 kg CO2eq/RF. The recycling and composting of waste presented energy savings due to the recycled materials and the avoided production of mineral fertilizers replaced with the compost, respectively. In addition, the incineration had some potential for energy recovery from waste, and it could result in crediting energy further, while the landfill should be improved in a more sustainable way of making use of the landfill gas and/or replacing the landfill with incineration with energy recovery. The results also indicated that the CED indicator was closely related to the CF indicator, valued as global warming potential, throughout the MSW management options/processes, and both the indicators could serve as an appropriate proxy of the environmental impacts on a life cycle phase.

Barriers Influencing Implementation of Plastic Recycling Process: A Case of Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia

Background: In current situation, problems related to municipal solid waste management is much vital and it is necessary to develop habits of recycling. It is better to commercialize for developing sustainable development of municipal solid waste management system. Level of waste and pollution is increasing due to advanced technology, an increasing number of people and a high expansion rate of modernization.Purpose: Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the most influential barriers that affect the implementation of the plastic recycling system in Dire Dawa city. Research Approach: The research was conducted based on the evaluation and reviewing of some literatures related to the topic on the back flow of materials from end-users to upper streams. Empirical research was also conducted. The questionnaires were designed on 13 imperative obstacles for the backward movement has been acknowledged. This can be later developed and discussed through the model called MICMAC investigation and carried out subsequently. Finding: This research analysis shows that, around 3,585, 893.5 plastic bottles/week has been collected for recycling and the city has obtained an economic advantage of around $160,297.824 monthly. To attain this economic advantage, top management plays a great role followed by the creation of awareness regarding this area as an interpretive structural model (ISM) result has showed. Originality/Value: this work is one of the few and pioneering efforts to investigate ISM practices that used to identify the most barriers affecting the recycling system of plastic material in the Dire Dawa city. Conclusion: This research forward suggestions that can help to solve the process, problems and ensure an effective recovery system, to achieve economic advantage and protect the environment from the adverse effects caused by solid waste thrown here and there in the city. Keywords: Interpretive Structural Model, Municipal Solid Waste, Reachability matrix, Recycling, Structural self-interaction matrix DOI: 10.7176/IEL/10-3-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Using Fuzzy Based Multiple Criteria Decision Making for Selecting Private Firm for Waste Management PPP Contract Arrangement

In Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM), intervention and participation of private sector is increasing day by day and various Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement is applied to enhance services across different parts of world. In Indian context new initiatives and policies like Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM), Smart City Mission (SCM) and Solid Waste Management(SWM) Rules, 2016 are launched recently to promote more integration of private actors in the MSWM system. Selecting a suitable private firm for PPP arrangement is crucial stage and needs careful assessment and feasibility study. The selection process is complex and decision making is often based on many conflicting attributes under uncertain environment. Therefore, selection of private firm for PPP contract arrangement is Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. This paper with the aim of aid decision making presents a study of the selecting optimal company for the Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (DBFOT) contract model of MSWM operations by using Fuzzy based TOPSIS (The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) Method. The numerical example for the MSWM planning problem of 4 selectable alternatives based on 10 evaluating criteria is also provided to illustrate the approach. The result revealed that approached used in the study can easily applied to any practical case of selection of private firm for PPP arrangement required for SWM services by the cities.

Technical-economic analysis of a municipal solid waste energy recovery facility in Spain: A case study

The aim of this work is to carry out a technical-economic analysis of an energy recovery facility (ERF) located in Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, Spain through a methodology based on social Cost-Benefit analysis, which considers the private impacts and externalities (social and environmental impacts) to determine the Total Benefit (the difference between revenues and costs) and decide if it is both operationally and economically profitable. The ERF plays an important role in Barcelona and its environs in generating energy, preventing the residual waste from being sent to landfills and therefore helping to comply with the objectives fixed by the European Commission. The key point of this work is the identification, frequency, quantification and monetary valuation of the impacts generated by the ERF, such as infrastructure costs, sale of energy, CO2 emissions, the effects on public health, among others; providing a guide to future researchers and policymakers interested in the economic valuation of MSW management systems. Applying the methodology, it can be seen that the facility is both operationally (BP = 9.86 €/ton) and economically (BT = 23.97 €/ton) profitable. The results show that the ERF has high private costs, however, due to its high revenues from the sale of energy and services, the facility is operationally profitable, but with a low private benefit per ton treated. Externalities play an important role since they increase the Total Benefit and make the ERF more economic reliable.

Research Trends in the Economic Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1980 to 2019

This article analyzes state-of the art studies that focus on the economic aspects (EA) of municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems, including an analysis of articles that have developed methodologies for economic analysis (MEA), as well as those which study the economic analysis of the externalities or external impacts related to these systems. The aim of this study was to determine the trends in research and critical points based on the literature available in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2019. First, we present the statistics and general trends, then perform an in-depth bibliometric study using the VOSviewer software, which allows the results to be grouped according to references, authors, institutions, countries, and journals. The study showed that 563 articles about the economic aspects have been published, 229 about methodology development, and only 21 considered the methodologies for analyzing externalities generated by the MSW management systems. In general, there is great interest in the economic analysis of the systems and technologies that deal with transforming waste into energy.

Effectiveness and Efficiency of Solid Waste Services in Lagos State, Nigeria

Lagos is the largest producer of municipal solid waste in Nigeria, yet it is the smallest of Nigeria’s 36 states with the highest projected population, highest level of urbanization and it houses Nigeria’s largest chief port, and principal economic and cultural centres. Out of the total waste generated, only about 73 percent actually got to the final disposal site. There is a possibility of inefficient and ineffective municipal solid waste management system in place which can damage the ecosystem services, contaminate ground and surface water, creates greenhouse gas emissions, increase disease transmission, damages ecosystem services and discourages tourism and other businesses. To this end, this study analysed the efficiency and effectiveness of solid waste services and; the efficiency and effectiveness of solid waste services in Lagos State using primary data and conducting statistical tests. The study found a general agreement on what constitutes efficient and effective solid waste services. However, the study concluded that the waste management system in Lagos State is inefficient, ineffective and therefore; unsustainable. The study therefore recommends among others the urgent need to re-organize the waste management institutions for effective and efficient performance. This requiressubstantial planning ability, appropriate equipment and continuous managerial optimization of vehicles and workers productivity,efficient vehicle routing, better designed vehicles, managerial incentives, faster vehicle repairs, vehicle standardization.

The impact of incineration phase-out on municipal solid waste landfilling and life cycle environmental performance: Case study of Madrid, Spain

Reducing the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) fed to incineration while enhancing source separation and biological treatments is being considered a mean to protect the environment and human health and promote recycling. However, such a strategy can compromises the landfill reduction targets while the associated environmental benefits remain so far unexplored and, in any case, any potential benefit should be evaluated for specific situations. In this study we applied material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantitatively evaluate the potential impact of phasing-out incineration in Madrid, Spain. The current MSW management system was assessed against future scenarios that describe the elimination of incineration as well as the increase of source separation, recycling, composting, and anaerobic digestion. The results revealed that incineration phase-out jeopardizes landfill reduction. However, phasing-out incineration can reduce the impact on acidification, terrestrial and marine eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, human toxicity cancer effects, and ecotoxicity. The climate impact ranges from irrelevant to largely beneficial depending on how the biogenic carbon is considered. The transition towards a renewable electricity mix and the increase in source separation of biodegradable waste seriously compromise the climate benefits of incineration over landfilling. Overall, actions are required in order to align incineration phase-out with the landfill reduction objective, namely upgrading material recovery facilities to reduce rejects and seeking alternative pathways for the rejects that will always exist.

Geochemical Modeling Applied in Waste Disposal, and Its Relevance for Municipal Solid Waste Management

Solid waste management is a challenge for municipalities mainly due to the increasing generation of residues worldwide. Much waste still ends up in landfills, either as a final disposal sink, or as a temporary yet long-term storage prior to eventual landfill mining. Through degradation and infiltration processes, these materials threaten groundwater, soil and the environment, invariably causing expressive societal concern. Waste managers, environmentalists and regulators alike focus upon predicting how these complex geochemical systems will evolve over decades. Geochemical modeling and transport simulation are commonly used to support the design, operation or characterization of these dynamic systems. In this targeted critical review of the literature over the last two decades concerning geochemical modeling applications to waste disposal (including municipal, incineration residue, and industrial), we have attempted to provide an assessment of the current state of knowledge in this field, supported by a comprehensive list of modeling methodologies and data analyses, relevant for municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems. The information provided is meant to be useful for specialists when planning, implementing or adapting MSW systems.

Application of life cycle assessment for municipal solid waste management options in Hohhot, People's Republic of China.

With increasing population and urbanization levels in the People's Republic of China, environmental problems related to the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) are inevitable. This study aimed to determine the environmental impact of the current MSW management system in Hohhot City and to establish an optimum future strategy for it by applying life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Four scenarios were compared using the CML-IA impact characterization method, which took into account their potential contribution to global warming, ozone depletion, human toxicity, photochemical ozone creation, acidification, and eutrophication potentials. The system boundaries included the collection and recycling, transfer and transportation of MSW, and its disposal by incineration, landfilling, and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture methods. The results showed that the scenario involving landfill and incineration in a ratio of 1:5 was the optimal waste management option; however, increasing the proportion of waste incinerated led to a significant increase in global warming potential. Additional technologies are thus required to overcome this problem, and it was found that the use of CO2 capture technology resulted in a 30% reduction in the total environmental impact potential. This study's results indicate that LCA is a valuable and practical tool to support decision-making that can be used to suggest problematic areas in current waste management strategies and to determine an optimal alternative to the solid waste management option.

Municipal Solid Waste Management System by using Remote Sensing and GIS Applications: A Review

Municipal Solid Waste Management System by using Remote Sensing and GIS Applications: A Review

Sustainable design modifications municipal solid waste management network and better optimization for risk reduction analyses

The staggering rate of waste generation due to industrialization, urbanization and population growth has raised a pressing problem regarding environmental damages and human health hazards, especially in developing nations. Severe environmental and social risks such as surface and groundwater pollution, soil and air contamination, serious human health hazards and damage to aesthetic aspects are some inappropriate waste management results. To overcome these burdens and move toward sustainable municipal solid waste management, effective and efficient practices are required. This study deals with a sustainable municipal solid waste network design problem under uncertainty. For this purpose, a multi-objective fuzzy robust programming model with the aim of minimizing the total costs of the network and environmental damages and optimizing social impacts is proposed. Different practical waste treatment practices are considered in the proposed network, including incineration, recycling, composting and sanitary landfilling. Also, a risk that is related to the population of facilities’ potential location is introduced and the Fuzzy Failure Mode and Effects Analysis is applied to determine the value of the mentioned risk. In order to tackle uncertain parameters of the proposed model, the Fuzzy Robust Optimization approach is applied. The proposed multi-objective model solves as a single-objective model using the Fuzzy Goal Programming approach with Different Importance and Priorities. The applicability of the model is demonstrated through a real case study of Minudasht’s municipal solid waste management system. The optimal location with the least risk and environmental impacts for each treatment facility with related technology and method is introduced. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis has done on some parameters to determine the effect of parameters’ changes on objective functions. The results showed the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model.

Life-cycle assessment of municipal solid waste management options: A case study of refuse derived fuel production in the city of Brasilia, Brazil

In Brazil, municipal solid waste (MSW) is mainly treated by landfilling. The underutilization of solid waste resources, from the viewpoint of their heating value, contributes to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and abiotic resources depletion. MSW as a resource, however, is capable of a coupe with the existing demand of the local cement industry as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). This paper analyzes the application of life-cycle assessment as the basis for improved MSW management in the Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. This study compared four scenarios of MSW management, in which three of them are characterized as an expansion of the ongoing practice by incorporating RDF production while another considers only the landfilling of solid waste. The results indicated that the current MSW management system contributes 267.44 Gg CO2-eq/year to GHG emissions, and the study showed that scenarios based on RDF production imply an increase in energy demand, with higher total GHG emissions, compared to the current management practice. However, gains are archived in environmental terms when the avoided emissions resulting from the substitution of fossil fuels are included in the analysis. The production and use of RDF outperformed the conventional systems by providing emission reductions of 2% to about 23%. Besides, this implies that the implementation of RDF oriented management could significantly reduce the impact on current disposal capacity at the local landfill site. From the perspective of impact related to abiotic resource depletion, it has been found that recycling and composting in the current scenario produces a reduction of 0.12 Gg Sb-eq/year. It constitutes a minimal fraction compared to the reduction in fossil fuel when considering the avoided coke extraction, that provides reductions from 3.63 to 13.73 Gg Sb-eq/year. It was concluded that the environmental advantages of RDF base scenarios in this context arise when the assessment is expanded to include the reduction of GHG indirect emissions and the use of resources.

Assessment of some governance aspects in waste management systems: A case study in Mexican municipalities

Many municipalities, particularly in developing countries, have a lack of information to guide decision-making to improve municipal solid waste management (MSWM). They need tools that systematize the collection and analysis of data, and then assess all aspects of the system, including both technical and non-technical ones. This work presents a field study covering 66 Mexican municipalities. A new set of indicators was selected based on the analysis of the information available, which can serve as a tool for evaluating some aspects of the governance of the MSWM system in similar contexts with an incipient implementation of the system. The set encompasses thirteen basic indicators divided into three categories: legislation and policies, employee development, and economy. For each indicator, reference values were established that allow the performance to be classified by means of a traffic light system. As a complement, a protocol for evaluating the quality of information was applied to reveal the uncertainty of the results obtained. The lowest ratios of response were obtained for the economic aspects and the disposal stage, due to the lack of separation and control of the MSWM budget, and to the large proportion of open dumps in the studied zone.A strong correlation was detected between the development and implementation of legislation and policies on waste management and correct operation, as well as a widespread presence of the informal sector in the service. Moreover, the absence of official fees for the service makes it difficult to recover expenses directly.

Occupational Health and Safety of Workers in Municipal Solid Waste Management System

Occupational Health and Safety of Workers in Municipal Solid Waste Management System

Moderate separation of household kitchen waste towards global optimization of municipal solid waste management

The sorting treatment of food waste is gradually considered as an available strategy to improve the sustainability of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, but the separation of household kitchen waste (HKW), the main component of food waste, is controversial because of its disperse sources and possible social cost. Social life cycle assessment is applied in this study to integrate environmental, economic, and social analyses, including the time investment of households, aiming to assess the influence of HKW separation comprehensively. The results show HKW separation at different separation rates improve the environmental performance of MSW treatment. When HKW separation rate increases by every 20 percentages, the net carbon emission reduces 5–7%, the acidic gas emission reduces by 3.1–3.5%, and the cumulative energy demand decreases by approximately 2.1–2.2%, owing to the higher heat value of incineration feedstock and more yield of energy products. HKW separation increases the energy consumption of waste collection and transportation system, but its contribution to the overall energy consumption is very limited. The whole MSW management system also has better economic performance along with more HKW separation and more energy output. In contrary, a huge amount of time cost of households increases the total social cost of MSW management, making HWK separation not an attractive option. From the point of view of residents, the external cost, including environmental cost and household time cost, should not exceed zero to ensure residents obtain some benefits from HKW separation, implying that HKW separation rate of 20% is acceptable. HKW water content and proportion in MSW are the two sensitive factors influencing the comprehensive performance of MSW management. Source HKW draining to water content 60% and source reduction by 30% can decrease the total social cost by 124–215% and 66–73%, respectively. The two effective measures are easy and convenient for residents to carry out with significant improvement of social sustainability of MSW management. Based on the effects on social cost, the priority of HKW management strategies should be given to source draining and then source reduction, followed by source separation from MSW at 20%.

Optimization of municipal solid waste management using a coordinated framework

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is an important but complex logistical problem. The deployment of MSW management systems is hindered by the ever-growing generation of waste and the often insufficient infrastructure to manage, process, and dispose of waste. This paper presents a coordinated framework for complex MSW management systems. The framework accommodates multiple key stakeholders in MSW systems, such as suppliers of waste, consumers of waste and derived products, and providers of transportation and processing services. Here, the stakeholders submit bids to a coordinator that solves an optimization problem to determine allocations and clearing prices that maximize the collective profit for all stakeholders and that balance supply and demand for waste and products. Furthermore, the clearing process guarantees that the individual profits are non-negative (no stakeholder loses money). Notably, the framework operates as a competitive market that accelerates transactions between stakeholders and that handles complex logistical constraints that would be difficult to handle in peer-to-peer transactions. The framework also facilitates the integration of policy incentives and the monetization of environmental impacts. In this regard, we evaluate a tax applied to open dump disposal. To illustrate the applicability, an MSW system in Mexico was analyzed as a case study. Results reveal that taxation can be used to incentivize the provision of services for all stakeholders. Specifically, we found that an appropriate tax can completely avoid disposal in open dumps. A tax of 5.1 USD/tonne was identified as the minimum penalization that avoids diverting waste to open dumps.