RSW-MCFP: A Resource-Oriented Solid Waste Management System for a Mixed Rural-Urban Area through Monte Carlo Simulation-Based Fuzzy Programming

• Main Authors: P. Li, H. J. Wu, B. Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
• Series: Mathematical Problems in Engineering
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/780354
• ISSN: 1024-123X; 1563-5147

The growth of global population and economy continually increases the waste volumes and consequently creates challenges to handle and dispose solid wastes. It becomes more challenging in mixed rural-urban areas (i.e., areas of mixed land use for rural and urban purposes) where both agricultural waste (e.g., manure) and municipal solid waste are generated. The efficiency and confidence of decisions in current management practices significantly rely on the accurate information and subjective judgments, which are usually compromised by uncertainties. This study proposed a resource-oriented solid waste management system for mixed rural-urban areas. The system is featured by a novel Monte Carlo simulation-based fuzzy programming approach. The developed system was tested by a real-world case with consideration of various resource-oriented treatment technologies and the associated uncertainties. The modeling results indicated that the community-based bio-coal and household-based CH4 facilities were necessary and would become predominant in the waste management system. The 95% confidence intervals of waste loadings to the CH4 and bio-coal facilities were 387, 450 and 178, 215 tonne/day (mixed flow), respectively. In general, the developed system has high capability in supporting solid waste management for mixed rural-urban areas in a cost-efficient and sustainable manner under uncertainty.