Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
considerably higher (64 percent). The higher percentage and moisture content
of food waste in household waste makes the separation of recyclable materials
from the other waste difficult. The quantity of potentially recyclable materials is
relatively lower. It correlates mainly with the dietary habit of the Chinese people,
who prefer food that is unprocessed and unpackaged.
12
MSW PLANNING ISSUES AND OPTIMIZATION MODELS
DEVELOPMENT
The municipal solid waste disposal is a growing problem throughout the world
as a result of economic development and population growth. This problem
is especially serious in densely populated metropolitan areas. Thus, it is
critical for the planners and engineers in locating appropriate number and type
of solid MSW processing and disposal facilities or their expansion for the
proper handling of MSW. Because solid waste disposal facilities are potential
sources of environmental and health risks (Hagemeister et al. 1996), these
facilities are considered undesirable by many communities and organizations
because residents do not want such facilities to be located near them. Thus,
to locate a solid waste disposal facility, not only the technical and economical
requirements have to be satisfied, but social and political issues also have to be
considered.
In general, landfill construction occurs in phases, where sections of the avail-
able area at developed sequentially. It's also useful to know that landfills are
designed with decades of capacity, while the modules within a landfill typically
have operating lives from one to several years. Most of the studies in the lit-
erature are related to landfills and disposal facilities focused on facility siting,
and this could be attributed to the numerous landfills in the United States that
were reaching their capacity or were about to be closed due to environmental
regulations. It was also becoming harder and harder to site new landfills. Some
states at the time had as few as 3 years of remaining landfill capacity, while
others had as many as 20 years.
Models for integrated municipal solid waste capacity planning can provide
valuable insight into trade-offs between landfill diversion program costs and
savings from resulting landfill service lifetime extensions (Lund 1990, Lawver
and Lund 1995). Some of the studies in this area focused on finding the optimal
size when building a new landfill, while other studies discussed the expansion
of an existing landfill (Huang et al.1995).
Another concern with landfill siting is the conflicting objectives and con-
straints, because even though a potential site for a landfill may have a good
geological formation that would impede ground water contamination from the
landfill, it could be deemed unacceptable because it is near a housing develop-
ment or other areas planned for public or private use (Minor and Jacobs 1994).
MSW management facilities siting was also included in studies that focused on
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