Municipal Solid Waste Characteristics and Green and Clean Energy Recovery in Asian Megacities

Today population growth, economic prosperity, and urbanization have led to an increase in municipal solid waste (MSW). The higher-populated and higher-income countries generate higher amounts of MSW. Not only the MSW amount, but the MSW composition can also be diverse in different countries. This study investigates the composition of MSW generated in Bangkok compared to other Asian megacities, for example, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Hong Kong. In addition, the MSW management model integrated with the Waste-to-Energy (WtE) concept will be analyzed and compared. With Bangkok as the case study, because of a lack of regulations and public participation, there is no MSW separation at the households; hence, the MSW generated contains higher organic waste which results in less calorific value of MSW compared to other developed countries. Mixed wet MSW is the main shortcoming of WtE development. As Bangkok is the main MSW producer in Thailand, which generates more than one-fourth of the domestic MSW, the WtE project was developed in Bangkok as a demonstration plant of WtE. The 500 ton per day incineration plant coupled with a power generation unit has been constructed for sustainable MSW disposal and for energy security in the megacity.