Track: Waste Management

Abstract

The exponential population growth coupled with rapid industrialization and urbanization triggered enormous municipal solid plastic waste (MSPW) generation. The massive generation of MSPW, coupled with poor management, have caused significant environmental impacts. Recently, a variety of MSPW management measures have been developed worldwide to guide MSPW management systems towards sustainability. Hence, developing a sustainable MSPW management system, through the application of advanced waste measures, is important for future sustainable development. However, sustainable MSPW management systems have not been well addressed in the literature. Therefore, this study aims to develop a generic system dynamics (SD) model to study the sustainable MSPW management. This is achieved through forecasting the effects of multiple sustainable measures, namely source separation policy, recycling process, and incineration with energy recovery technology on MSPW management and GHG reduction amount. The proposed model is implemented on a case study of MSPW management system in Dubai to assess its applicability and effectiveness. Vensim® software is used to stimulate the model through testing five different scenarios. The simulation results indicated that scenarios HSLRWI and LSHRLI have the highest amount of plastic waste recycled (1,692,050 tonnes), scenario LSWRHI has the highest amount of incinerated plastic waste with energy recovery (1,171,420 tonnes) and the highest amount of GHG reduction (2,184,320 MTCO₂E), and scenario LSHRLI gives least amount of plastic waste landfilled (0). Therefore, the proposed model helps decision makers in understanding the effects of sustainable MSPW measures, which guides them in choosing the measures that works best according to their strategies and goals.