Towards a sustainable waste management system for emerging economies : a decision support tool

Solid waste is no longer regarded as something to “get rid of”, but as of potential value, from both environmental and economic points of view. The current research proposes a decision support tool (DST) that could assist cities that are aiming for a sustainable municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system. Achieving such system requires addressing the interconnectedness of economic, environmental, social, technical and governance aspects of the MSWM problem. The developed DST consists of two parts: an assessment tool and a system analysis. The indicator-based assessment guide is utilized to capture different aspects of sustainability and can be used to monitor the performance of a city over time. The second part of the DST is a system analysis that combines material flow analysis (MFA) and mathematical modeling. STAN software is used for demonstrating the MFA including inputs, stocks, and outputs of the MSWM system in the city. A cost-benefit analysis is conducted to evaluate the economic and environmental aspects of the MSWM system in the city of Cairo as an exemplary city. The current research investigates the uncertainty of input data and its effect on error propagation in the MFA. Uncertainty analysis of the different scenarios suggested by the outputs of the mathematical model is further discussed. Different scenarios for treatment methods and their capacities are outputs determined by optimizing the mathematical model, which indicate possible optimal solutions