The management of household hazardous waste in the United Kingdom

Waste legislation in the United Kingdom (UK) implements European Union (EU) Directives and Regulations. However, the term used to refer to hazardous waste generated in household or municipal situations, household hazardous waste (HHW), does not occur in UK, or EU, legislation. The EU's Hazardous Waste Directive and European Waste Catalogue are the principal legislation influencing HHW, although the waste categories described are difficult to interpret. Other legislation also have impacts on HHW definition and disposal, some of which will alter current HHW disposal practices, leading to a variety of potential consequences. This paper discusses the issues affecting the management of HHW in the UK, including the apparent absence of a HHW-specific regulatory structure. Policy and regulatory measures that influence HHW management before disposal and after disposal are considered, with particular emphasis placed on disposal to landfill.     

A model recycling program for Alabama

Solid waste disposal is becoming a difficult problem for many states. Since 1960, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) has been increasing at a rate of 1% per year. More than 75% of the waste is comprised of recyclable materials. Several states have mandated recycling to decrease the volume of waste intended for disposal. Those mandated programs are very popular, but depend on many political, social, and economic factors for success. While Alabama has the manufacturing infrastructure to support a mandated recycling program, no recycling legislation has been promulgated. At this time recycling is only being done on a voluntary basis. A mandatory program with the proper support, education and funding could allow Alabama to recycle much of the 5.2 million tons of waste that are generated within its borders each year.     

The effect of recycling price uncertainty on municipal waste management choices

This paper analyzes the effect of price uncertainty and irreversible investment on the decision of municipalities to switch from landfill waste disposal to recycling by developing a model to predict recycling adoption behavior and applying it to empirical data. It is shown that uncertainty regarding the price of recycled materials may induce a risk neutral municipality to prefer landfill disposal, even when recycling is less expensive. A model is developed to describe the switching process and estimate its parameters using empirical data from 79 municipalities in Israel. The model is then used to predict municipalities' recycling adoption decisions under various assumptions regarding price uncertainty. The results support the hypothesis that price uncertainty is a major obstacle for recycling. Finally, several options for price stabilization are sketched and it is argued that these policies may be effective in establishing viable recycling markets.     

Biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) management strategy in Ireland: A comparison with some key issues in the BMW strategy being adopted in England

Due to increasing pressure from the European Union to meet recycling and recovery targets, (e.g. the packaging waste, waste electronic equipment and landfill directives), both the Irish and England's governments’ policy on waste management is changing to meet these pressures, with major emphasis upon the management of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW). In particular, the EU landfill directive requires reductions in the rate of biodegradable waste going to landfill to 35% by 2016. The objective of this paper is to examine how Ireland plans to meet this challenge and to compare the Irish strategy to that being adopted in England. The approach in England is driven by a clear understanding that the practice in the late 1990s was unlikely to ensure compliance with EU targets by the set dates. England has therefore developed a discrete, programme (Waste Implementation Programme) to drive a new approach, based on rigorous science and international best practice, which includes a Demonstrator Programme for new technologies. The dynamic, high cost, large scale programme in England stands in sharp contrast to that for Ireland and only future, detailed analysis of outcomes will be able to evaluate the cost effectiveness of each.     

Overview of non-hazardous solid waste in the small island state of Mauritius

In Mauritius, solid waste disposal has been a cause for concern since the 1980s. Currently, there is no segregation of waste and some 1200 tonnes of solid waste are generated daily by the 1.24 million inhabitants of the island. As processes such as recycling and composting are still in their infancy stage, most of the waste generated have to be disposed of at the sole landfill. The solid waste management practices of 1980s and early 1990s are no longer compatible with the changing composition and quantity of wastes now generated. As a result, there is an urgency to review the whole waste management system and come forward with sustainable solutions.This paper presents an overview of the disposal of non-hazardous solid waste in Mauritius and provides recommendations for improving the current disposal system.     

Options for management of municipal solid waste in New York City: a preliminary comparison of health risks and policy implications

Landfill disposal and waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration remain the two principal options for managing municipal solid waste (MSW). One critical determinant of the acceptability of these options is the different health risks associated with each. In this analysis relying on published data and exposure modeling, we have performed health risk assessments for landfill disposal versus WTE treatment options for the management of New York City's MSW. These are based on the realistic scenario of using a waste transfer station (WTS) in Brooklyn and then transporting the untreated MSW by truck to a landfill in Pennsylvania or using a WTE facility in Brooklyn and then transporting the resultant ash by truck to a landfill in Pennsylvania. The overall results indicate that the individual cancer risks for both options would be considered generally acceptable, although the risk from landfilling is approximately 5 times greater than from WTE treatment; the individual non-cancer health risks for both options would be considered generally unacceptable, although once again the risk from landfilling is approximately 5 times greater than from WTE treatment. If one considers only the population in Brooklyn that would be directly affected by the siting of either a WTS or a WTE facility in their immediate neighborhood, individual cancer and non-cancer health risks for both options would be considered generally acceptable, but risks for the former remain considerably higher than for the latter. These results should be considered preliminary due to several limitations of this study such as: consideration of risks only from inhalation exposures; assumption that only volume and not composition of the waste stream is altered by WTE treatment; reliance on data from the literature rather than actual measurements of the sites considered, assuming comparability of the sites. However, the results of studies such as this, in conjunction with ecological, socioeconomic and equity considerations, should prove useful to environmental managers, regulators, policy makers, community representatives and other stakeholders in making sound and acceptable decisions regarding the optimal handling of MSW.     

Solid waste management in urban areas: Development and application of a decision support system

A decision support system (DSS) developed to assist the planner in decisions concerning the overall management of solid waste at a municipal scale is described. The DSS allows to plan the optimal number of landfills and treatment plants, and to determine the optimal quantities and the characteristics of the refuse that has to be sent to treatment plants, to landfills and to recycling. The application of the DSS is based on the solution of a constrained non-linear optimization problem. Various classes of constraints have been introduced in the problem formulation, taking into account the regulations about the minimum requirements for recycling, incineration process requirements, sanitary landfill conservation, and mass balance. The cost function to be minimized includes recycling, transportation and maintenance costs. The DSS has been tested on the municipality of Genova, Italy, and the results obtained are presented.     

The influence of collection facility attributes on household collection rates of electronic waste: The case of televisions and computer monitors

In the US, household electronic waste collected for recycling is primarily by voluntary drop-off at designated collection facilities. This study examines the influence of specific collection facility attributes (recycling fees charged, number of days open, and driving distance) on the household collection rate of e-waste in the US state of Maine. Data were collected for household computer monitor and television collection for 92 municipal waste transfer facilities representing 30% of the state's population for one year. Results suggest that recycling fees are negatively correlated with the number of televisions and computer monitors collected; furthermore, the more frequently facilities were open, the more televisions and computer monitors were collected per capita. The distance from the facility had no correlation, which prompted an analysis of whether the existence of a curbside collection system in the municipality was influential. Results show a negative correlation between computer monitor and television collection and a municipality having recycling (but not e-waste) curbside collection. Based on the results of this study, policymakers may be able to increase the collection rate of household e-waste by eliminating or lowering recycling fees, expanding collection days and hours to increase convenience, and/or considering curbside collection of e-waste.     

The effects of leachate recirculation with supplemental water addition on methane production and waste decomposition in a simulated tropical landfill

In order to increase methane production efficiency, leachate recirculation is applied in landfills to increase moisture content and circulate organic matter back into the landfill cell. In the case of tropical landfills, where high temperature and evaporation occurs, leachate recirculation may not be enough to maintain the moisture content, therefore supplemental water addition into the cell is an option that could help stabilize moisture levels as well as stimulate biological activity. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of leachate recirculation and supplemental water addition on municipal solid waste decomposition and methane production in three anaerobic digestion reactors. Anaerobic digestion with leachate recirculation and supplemental water addition showed the highest performance in terms of cumulative methane production and the stabilization period time required. It produced an accumulated methane production of 54.87 l/kg dry weight of MSW at an average rate of 0.58 l/kg dry weight/d and reached the stabilization phase on day 180. The leachate recirculation reactor provided 17.04 l/kg dry weight at a rate of 0.14l/kg dry weight/d and reached the stabilization phase on day 290. The control reactor provided 9.02 l/kg dry weight at a rate of 0.10 l/kg dry weight/d, and reached the stabilization phase on day 270. Increasing the organic loading rate (OLR) after the waste had reached the stabilization phase made it possible to increase the methane content of the gas, the methane production rate, and the COD removal. Comparison of the reactors' efficiencies at maximum OLR (5 kgCOD/m(3)/d) in terms of the methane production rate showed that the reactor using leachate recirculation with supplemental water addition still gave the highest performance (1.56 l/kg dry weight/d), whereas the leachate recirculation reactor and the control reactor provided 0.69 l/kg dry weight/d and 0.43 l/kg dry weight/d, respectively. However, when considering methane composition (average 63.09%) and COD removal (average 90.60%), slight differences were found among these three reactors.     

Assessment of the greenhouse effect impact of technologies used for energy recovery from municipal waste: A case for England

Waste management activities contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions approximately by 4%. In particular the disposal of waste in landfills generates methane that has high global warming potential. Effective mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is important and could provide environmental benefits and sustainable development, as well as reduce adverse impacts on public health. The European and UK waste policy force sustainable waste management and especially diversion from landfill, through reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, and recovery of value from waste. Energy from waste is a waste management option that could provide diversion from landfill and at the same time save a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, since it recovers energy from waste which usually replaces an equivalent amount of energy generated from fossil fuels. Energy from waste is a wide definition and includes technologies such as incineration of waste with energy recovery, or combustion of waste-derived fuels for energy production or advanced thermal treatment of waste with technologies such as gasification and pyrolysis, with energy recovery. The present study assessed the greenhouse gas emission impacts of three technologies that could be used for the treatment of Municipal Solid Waste in order to recover energy from it. These technologies are Mass Burn Incineration with energy recovery, Mechanical Biological Treatment via bio-drying and Mechanical Heat Treatment, which is a relatively new and uninvestigated method, compared to the other two. Mechanical Biological Treatment and Mechanical Heat Treatment can turn Municipal Solid Waste into Solid Recovered Fuel that could be combusted for energy production or replace other fuels in various industrial processes. The analysis showed that performance of these two technologies depends strongly on the final use of the produced fuel and they could produce GHG emissions savings only when there is end market for the fuel. On the other hand Mass Burn Incineration generates greenhouse gas emission savings when it recovers electricity and heat. Moreover the study found that the expected increase on the amount of Municipal Solid Waste treated for energy recovery in England by 2020 could save greenhouse gas emission, if certain Energy from Waste technologies would be applied, under certain conditions.     

Environmental sustainability assessment in the process industry: A case study of waste-to-energy plants in Spain

This study proposes a technical procedure based on a life cycle approach for implementation of the environmental sustainability assessment (ESA) of several waste-to-energy (WtE) plants located in Spain. This methodology uses two main variables: the natural resources sustainability (NRS) and the environmental burdens sustainability (EBS). NRS includes the consumption of energy, materials, and water, whereas EBS considers five burdens to air, five burdens to water, and two burdens to land. To reduce the complexity of ESA, all variables were normalised and weighted using the threshold values proposed in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register regulation. The results showed the plants studied had a greater consumption of natural resources than Spain, ranging from 1.1 to 2.0 times higher than the Spanish reference consumption. The comparison of Spain with the BREF reference on waste incineration showed that only in the variable related to materials, did Spain have a lower consumption (1.80 times lower). In terms of EBS, air and land impacts were the highest contributors to global burden. The WtE plants presented higher burdens to air and water than Spain, whereas only one plant exceeded the average burden to land of Spain. Finally, this paper demonstrated the usefulness of the ESA methodology to reduce the complexity of LCA and assist the decision-making process in choosing the best option from an environmental point of view. This procedure can be used to obtain an overview of the environmental performance of WtE plants, as well as to assess individual burdens and thereby determine the main environmental hotspots, thereby improving the critical points of the process.     

A generic comparison of the airborne risks to human health from landfill and incinerator disposal of municipal solid waste

A comparison of the potential risks to human health from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration and landfill on a generic basis is attempted. For this purpose a 'worst case' approach is adopted and a number of assumptions regarding the size and activities of each waste disposal method are made. The airborne pollutants measured for an incinerator are different from those for a landfill with or without gas collection. However, based on the available information it appears that as far as airborne pollution is concerned, landfill sites without gas collection pose a potentially higher generic risk to human health than MSW incinerators performing to Environmental Agency (UK) standards. This analysis cannot be used to replace specific evaluations for a particular incinerator or a landfill site because local conditions can have a very large impact on the magnitude of risks involved.     

Assessing instruments for mixed household solid waste collection services in the Flemish region of Belgium

Instruments to reduce waste can be divided into three groups: first, pecuniary incentives; second, service level; finally, measurements stimulating prevention and waste reduction. Also specific characteristics of the community determine the amount of waste generated. We evaluate whether findings in literature on effectiveness of policy measures are valid for Belgium, specifically for the Flemish region. The policy mix instituted by the Flemish authorities in the ‘implementation plan household waste 2003–2007’ and implemented by local authorities, is assessed. Multiple regression analysis identifies those measurements having the greatest impact on household solid waste.We found an income elasticity of 0.326. Also the provided service level has a significant impact. Pecuniary incentives are effective instruments in reducing waste, with a price elasticity of −0.139. Furthermore, a higher percentage of direct costs, directly attributable to waste services, borne by households, reduces waste. A consequent implementation of the ‘polluter pays’ principle proves to be effective.     

Solid waste management in European countries: a review of systems analysis techniques

In the past few decades, solid waste management systems in Europe have involved complex and multi-faceted trade-offs among a plethora of technological alternatives, economic instruments, and regulatory frameworks. These changes resulted in various environmental, economic, social, and regulatory impacts in waste management practices which not only complicate regional policy analysis, but also reshape the paradigm of global sustainable development. Systems analysis, a discipline that harmonizes these integrated solid waste management strategies, has been uniquely providing interdisciplinary support for decision making in this area. Systems engineering models and system assessment tools, both of which enrich the analytical framework of waste management, were designed specifically to handle particular types of problems. Though how to smooth out the barriers toward achieving appropriate systems synthesis and integration of these models and tools to aid in the solid waste management schemes prevalent in European countries still remains somewhat uncertain. This paper conducts a thorough literature review of models and tools illuminating possible overlapped boundaries in waste management practices in European countries and encompassing the pros and cons of waste management practices in each member state of the European Union. Whereas the Southern European Union (EU) countries need to develop further measures to implement more integrated solid waste management and reach EU directives, the Central EU countries need models and tools with which to rationalize their technological choices and management strategies. Nevertheless, considering systems analysis models and tools in a synergistic way would certainly provide opportunities to develop better solid waste management strategies leading to conformity with current standards and foster future perspectives for both the waste management industry and government agencies in European Union.     

The effects on waste reduction and recycling rates when different components of the waste stream are counted

States differ in the components or solid waste management activities which they include when determining solid waste reduction and recycling rates. Thus, when attempting to draw comparisons among states, confusion arises in two ways: (1) use of two types of rates; and (2) use of different components or activities when calculating a given rate. This paper presents a mathematical basis for understanding the impacts on rate calculations when variations occur in the components and activities included in those calculations. Estimates of the incremental changes occurring in the rate calculations when incineration or selected components such as yard waste, construction and demolition wastes, and junked automobiles, are added to a base of municipal solid waste constituents are found using national data. Finally, the achieved rates reported by states counting different combinations are compared.     

Environmental assessment of different management options for individual waste fractions by means of life-cycle assessment modelling

Several alternatives exist for handling of individual waste fractions, including recycling, incineration and landfilling. From an environmental point of view, the latter is commonly considered as the least desirable option. Many studies based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) highlight the environmental benefits offered by incineration and especially by recycling. However, the landfilling option is often approached unjustly in these studies, maybe disregarding the remarkable technological improvements that landfills have undergone in the last decades in many parts of the world.This study, by means of LCA-modelling, aims at comparing the environmental performance of three major management options (landfilling, recycling and incineration or composting) for a number of individual waste fractions. The landfilling option is here approached comprehensively, accounting for all technical and environmental factors involved, including energy generation from landfill gas and storage of biogenic carbon. Leachate and gas emissions associated to each individual waste fraction have been estimated by means of a mathematical modelling. This approach towards landfilling emissions allows for a more precise quantification of the landfill impacts when comparing management options for selected waste fractions.Results from the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) show that the environmental performance estimated for landfilling with energy recovery of the fractions “organics” and “recyclable paper” is comparable with composting (for “organics”) and incineration (for “recyclable paper”). This however requires high degree of control over gas and leachate emissions, high gas collection efficiency and extensive gas utilization at the landfill. For the other waste fractions, recycling and incineration are favourable, although specific emissions of a variety of toxic compounds (VOCs, PAHs, NO_x, heavy metals, etc.) may significantly worsen their environmental performance.     

Life cycle assessment of waste paper management: The importance of technology data and system boundaries in assessing recycling and incineration

The significance of technical data, as well as the significance of system boundary choices, when modelling the environmental impact from recycling and incineration of waste paper has been studied by a life cycle assessment focusing on global warming potentials. The consequence of choosing a specific set of data for the reprocessing technology, the virgin paper manufacturing technology and the incineration technology, as well as the importance of the recycling rate was studied. Furthermore, the system was expanded to include forestry and to include fossil fuel energy substitution from saved biomass, in order to study the importance of the system boundary choices. For recycling, the choice of virgin paper manufacturing data is most important, but the results show that also the impacts from the reprocessing technologies fluctuate greatly. For the overall results the choice of the technology data is of importance when comparing recycling including virgin paper substitution with incineration including energy substitution. Combining an environmentally high or low performing recycling technology with an environmentally high or low performing incineration technology can give quite different results. The modelling showed that recycling of paper, from a life cycle point of view, is environmentally equal or better than incineration with energy recovery only when the recycling technology is at a high environmental performance level. However, the modelling also showed that expanding the system to include substitution of fossil fuel energy by production of energy from the saved biomass associated with recycling will give a completely different result. In this case recycling is always more beneficial than incineration, thus increased recycling is desirable. Expanding the system to include forestry was shown to have a minor effect on the results. As assessments are often performed with a set choice of data and a set recycling rate, it is questionable how useful the results from this kind of LCA are for a policy maker. The high significance of the system boundary choices stresses the importance of scientific discussion on how to best address system analysis of recycling, for paper and other recyclable materials.     

Assessing the demand of solid waste disposal in urban region by urban dynamics modelling in a GIS environment

The twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in the production of urban solid waste, reflecting unprecedented global levels of economic activity. Despite some efforts to reduce and recover the waste, disposal in landfills is still the most usual destination. However, landfill has become more difficult to implement because of its increasing cost, community opposition to landfill siting, and more restrictive environmental regulations regarding the siting and operation of landfills. Moreover, disposal in landfill is the waste destination method with the largest demand for land, while land is a resource whose availability has been decreasing in urban systems. Shortage of land for landfills is a problem frequently cited in the literature as a physical constraint. Nonetheless, the shortage of land for waste disposal has not been fully studied and, in particular, quantified. This paper presents a method to quantify the relationship between the demand and supply of suitable land for waste disposal over time using a geographic information system and modelling techniques. Based on projections of population growth, urban sprawl and waste generation the method can allow policy and decision-makers to measure the dimension of the problem of shortage of land into the future. The procedure can provide information to guide the design and schedule of programs to reduce and recover waste, and can potentially lead to a better use of the land resource. Porto Alegre City, Brazil was used as the case study to illustrate and analyse the approach. By testing different waste management scenarios, the results indicated that the demand for land for waste disposal overcomes the supply of suitable land for this use in the study area before the year 2050.     

A two-stage support-vector-regression optimization model for municipal solid waste management - a case study of Beijing, China

In this study, a two-stage support-vector-regression optimization model (TSOM) is developed for the planning of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in the urban districts of Beijing, China. It represents a new effort to enhance the analysis accuracy in optimizing the MSW management system through coupling the support-vector-regression (SVR) model with an interval-parameter mixed integer linear programming (IMILP). The developed TSOM can not only predict the city's future waste generation amount, but also reflect dynamic, interactive, and uncertain characteristics of the MSW management system. Four kernel functions such as linear kernel, polynomial kernel, radial basis function, and multi-layer perception kernel are chosen based on three quantitative simulation performance criteria [i.e. prediction accuracy (PA), fitting accuracy (FA) and over all accuracy (OA)]. The SVR with polynomial kernel has accurate prediction performance for MSW generation rate, with all of the three quantitative simulation performance criteria being over 96%. Two cases are considered based on different waste management policies. The results are valuable for supporting the adjustment of the existing waste-allocation patterns to raise the city's waste diversion rate, as well as the capacity planning of waste management system to satisfy the city's increasing waste treatment/disposal demands.