Economic and Environmental Evaluations of Waste Treatment and Disposal Technologies for Municipal Solid Waste

MSW management can be defined as the discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer, processing and disposal of MSW, in a way which is governed by the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, aesthetics and other environmental considerations. The disposal of MSW has been the focus of environmental policy for several industrialised countries since the mid-1970s, when attempts were made to identify and categorise, in a systematic way, the waste fractions involved. This categorisation provided the policy makers with the necessary information, to determine the most appropriate option for dealing with the waste in a more economic and environmentally-sustainable way. This paper reviews the main economic costs and the environmental impacts of the widely-accepted waste treatment and disposal methods. Examples of successful waste-management schemes are presented and prospective future trends are assessed.