A Disjunctive Programming Approach for Sustainable Design of Municipal Solid Waste Management

Abstract

The increasing Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) poses great pressure on cities, especially for emerging countries. This paper presents a mathematical programming model to optimise MSW management. A disjunctive fuzzy optimisation approach is used in this work for several MSW treatment technologies, resulting in multi-objective optimization. The proposed model is used to choose the suitable treatment technologies and optimal distribution of MSW between sources and sinks to minimise the total cost of MSW management and greenhouse gas emission. The optimisation problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model using generalised disjunctive programming to select suitable MSW treatment technologies and optimal distribution networks. A case study of Hefei, China is presented to illustrate the proposed approach. The multiple objectives of total cost and GHG emissions for MSW management are analysed based on fuzzy optimisation yielding a compromise solution of 192.99 M$/y for total cost and 1,120.48 t/y for emissions. A compromised solution suggested in this study can effectively minimize both total cost and carbon emission and properly deal with the MSW management problem. This work provides a decision tool for the selection of MSW technologies during MSW management.