DOE OSTI2017
Highlights: • Municipal waste treatment costs are assessed for the first time in developing Asia. • A database with primary and secondary data from existing plants was prepared. • Capital and operational expenditures patterns were analyzed and discussed. • Incineration identified by large margin as the costliest approach for treating waste. • Context specific circumstances are key to explain deviations from the norm. - Abstract: The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the main costs incurred by local authorities in developing countries. According to some estimates, these costs can account for up to 50% of city government budgets. It is therefore of importance that policymakers, urban planners and practitioners have an adequate understanding of what these costs consist of, from collection to final waste disposal. This article focuses on a specific stage of the MSW value chain, the treatment of waste, and it aims to identify cost patterns associated with the implementation and operation of waste treatment approaches in developing Asian countries. An analysis of the capital (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) of a number of facilities located in countries of the region was conducted based on a database gathering nearly 100 projects and which served as basis for assessing four technology categories: composting, anaerobic digestion (AD), thermal treatment, and the production of refuse-derived fuel (RDF). Among these, it was found that the least costly to invest, as a function of the capacity to process waste, are composting facilities, with an average CAPEX per ton of 21,493 USD{sub 2015}/ton. Conversely, at the upper end featured incineration plants, with an average CAPEX of 81,880 USD{sub 2015}/ton, with this treatment approach ranking by and large as the most capital intensive of the four categories assessed. OPEX figures of the plants, normalized and analyzed in the form of OPEX/ton, were also found to be higher for incineration than for biological treatment methods, although on this component differences amongst the technology groups were less pronounced than those observed for CAPEX. While the results indicated the existence of distinct cost implications for available treatment approaches in the developing Asian context, the analysis also underscored the importance of understanding the local context as a means to properly identify the cost structure of each specific plant. Moreover, even though CAPEX and OPEX figures are important elements to assess the costs of a waste treatment system, these should not be considered on a standalone basis for decision making purposes. In complement to this internal cost dimension, the broader impacts – to the economy, society and the environment – resulting from the adoption of a certain treatment approach should be properly understood and, ideally, measured and expressed in monetary terms.
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗