MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AND DISPOSAL - Environmentally Conscious Materials Handling - page 160

solid waste management on a regional level where the interaction between various
parameters and factors such as system costs and scheduling has been illustrated
(Movassaghi 1993; Hsieh and Ho 1993; Lund 1990; Lund et al. 1994). Uncer-
tainty with respect to model parameters, as well as objectives, has also been
explored with various optimization approaches (Chang et al. 1993; Huang, et al.
1995; Huang et al. 1997; Chang and Wang 1997).
The need for recycling has significantly increased with the rapid depletion of
landfills throughout the 1980s along with the continuous decrease in many natural
resources, and that lead to many federal and state regulations that recognized
and enforced recycling in many industries. The fact that recycling is a costly
solid-waste operation created a need for effective recycling programs with cost
and environmental balances. The majority of the studies associated with recycling
and composting were done in comparison with landfill and incineration. For
example, examining the effect of increasing the efficiency of waste disposal
through implementing recycling programs in regional levels by considering the
cost of transportation and profits from the recycled materials (Everett et al. 1993;
Keeler and Renkow 1994; Vogtlander et al. 2001).
There are also comprehensive models developed for general system-level sim-
ulation and cost estimating for components of solid waste management systems.
Examples include the following:
• Anex et al. (1996) developed GIGO, a spreadsheet-based model of munic-
ipal solid waste management systems.
• Berger et al. (1999) developed EUGENE, a process-oriented optimization
model that deals with the integrated solid waste management planning
problem at a regional level.
• Wang et al. (1994) developed SWIM, an optimization model that provides
decision support for the design of integrated solid waste management sys-
tems with the consideration of cost effectiveness and environmental impact.
• MacDonald (1996) developed a specific spatial decision support system
(SDSS) by providing analytical tools for developing plans and evaluating
a number of impacts associated with a plan to address the multiattribute
and geographical nature of solid waste systems.
• Chang and Li (1997) presented a model utilizing modeling-to-generate-
alternatives (MGA) for generating preliminary solid waste management
(SWM) alternatives.
• Dowie et al. (1998) developed and implemented an institutional solid waste
environmental management system (SW-EMS) in Pinawa-Canada. Several
audits before and after the use of the system suggest that SW-EMS was
successful in significantly reducing the waste sent to landfills.
• McGrath (2001) introduced a software tool called SMARTWaste that has
been used to audit, reduce, and target waste arising on a construction site.