Life-cycle assessment of municipal solid waste management alternatives with consideration of uncertainty: SIWMS development and application

Journal Article · Sat May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2009.12.026· OSTI ID:21357667

El-Zein, Abbas ^[1]

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1. School of Civil Engineering, Building J05, University of Sydney NSW 2006 (Australia)

This paper describes the development and application of the Stochastic Integrated Waste Management Simulator (SIWMS) model. SIWMS provides a detailed view of the environmental impacts and associated costs of municipal solid waste (MSW) management alternatives under conditions of uncertainty. The model follows a life-cycle inventory approach extended with compensatory systems to provide more equitable bases for comparing different alternatives. Economic performance is measured by the net present value. The model is verified against four publicly available models under deterministic conditions and then used to study the impact of uncertainty on Sydney's MSW management 'best practices'. Uncertainty has a significant effect on all impact categories. The greatest effect is observed in the global warming category where a reversal of impact direction is predicted. The reliability of the system is most sensitive to uncertainties in the waste processing and disposal. The results highlight the importance of incorporating uncertainty at all stages to better understand the behaviour of the MSW system.

• OSTI ID: 21357667
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Vol. 30, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2009.12.026; PII: S0956-053X(10)00021-8; Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
COST
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
INVENTORIES
LIFE CYCLE
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
RELIABILITY
SIMULATORS
SOLID WASTES
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
WASTE PROCESSING
ANALOG SYSTEMS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
MANAGEMENT
PROCESSING
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES