A multi-objective approach for sustainable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management

A multi-objective approach to sustainable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is presented, with the aim of supporting the decisions about the optimal flows of solid waste to be sent to landfill, recycling and to the different treatment plants. To achieve this goal, an approach is proposed in which the decision makers (DMs) are interactively involved in the decision process, following the reference point methodology [Wierzbicki et al, 2002]. The method can be viewed as an integration/modification of techniques already introduced in the literature. The purpose of the DMs is to determine the various flows of the different materials in the whole MSW management system in order to satisfy a number of technological and normative constraints and minimizing four main objectives: the economic cost of material treatment, the quantity of unrecycled waste, the quantity of waste sent to the landfill, and the emissions of the incinerator. The model proposed has been applied to a case study concerning the municipality of Genova. The case has been analysed assuming the presence of two different decision makers, characterized by different attitudes in selecting the initial reference solution and in interacting with the methodology. Results and final comments are reported