Solid waste management systems assessment: the municipality s point-of-view

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to present sustainability indicators for municipal solid waste management (MSWM). Sustainability implies environmental, economic and social acceptance. The complexity of the system-in-focus requires the employment of a systems (or cybernetic) approach: Acceptance implies clear objectives, from a specific point of view (here, the viewpoint of the municipal administration is taken), over a time horizon covering at least two generations, a life-cycle consideration, clear evaluation criteria for alternative MSWM systems, and finally specific and measurable indicators of the degree to which the objectives have been met. In this paper, a number of specific environmental indicators (abiotic depletion, human toxicity, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photo-oxidant formation, etc.), economic indicators (cost per ton or per household or per person, revenue from recovered material and energy, MSWM system cost as % of GNP of the city, diversion between revenue and expenditures for MSWM, cost per capita as % of minimum wage, subsidies per person) and social indicators (odor, visual impact, comfort, required or used-up space, noise, system complexity, employment quality, etc.) are suggested for measuring the performance of municipal SWM systems. Specific real application is mentioned for a Greek city.