A System Dynamics Model for the Assessment of Hazardous Waste Management System. Case Study: Waste Batteries and Accumulators

During past years a great attention is paid to the problem of hazardous waste management, because “prevention costs” of the activities concerned with hazardous waste are lower than “restoration costs” after damage is done.A proper management strategy for hazardous waste is one of the key components for a sustainable development of society. Existing studies on the management strategies for hazardous waste sector have a static perspective; therefore the objective of the study is to consider the dynamic and interdependent relationships within the waste management system.The paper proposes a model that can be used for thesimulations of various decisions making processes and their effects on the sector of hazardous waste.The model is constructed using the system dynamics methodology, which presents an approach for dealing with interrelationships and dynamics in respect to social, economic and environmental aspects. Within a system dynamic model three modules were elaborated: input, simulation and output module. The major variables that affect the sector are integrated in the dynamic model. Causal loop diagrams and a stock-flow diagram are presented within the research. The case study is used for the validation of the dynamic model.The sector of batteries and accumulations have been chosen as the target for case study, because the amount of waste in this sector have grown by 41.2 % from the period of 2004 – 2010 and reached 1610000 tonnes in 2010 within the European Union 27 member states. At the same time the Directive 2008/103/EC on batteries and accumulators and on waste batteries and accumulators forces to implement a better environmental performance within the sector. The results of the research show that the dynamic model can be used for the quantitative analysis of the hazardous waste sector – waste batteries and accumulators. The impacts of various decision making processes within the sector havebeen assessed in short, medium and long term perspective.