Landfill NIMBY and Systems Engineering: A Paradigm for Urban Planning

Abstract. A solid waste management crisis exists in many parts of the US as a result of the inability to site new landfills to replace the consumed capacity of existing landfills. Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills can, and usually do, have a significant adverse impact on the individuals who own property in, reside in, or otherwise use, areas near the landfill. This leads those who stand to be adversely affected by a landfill to take a justifiable "NIMBY " (Not in My Back Yard) position against it. In the past and even today the approach that is used for siting landfills is to select one or more specifically rural areas as candidate sites and then through