OPTIMIZATION OF A REGIONAL SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM

A regional waste disposal system consisting of four subsystems, i. e., intermediate treatment (incineration), transportation, land reclamation and leachate treatment, was optimized by the dynamic programming technique. The sum of construction and running costs was employed as the objective function to be minimized under maintaing the COD concentration of effluent below a certain level.The optimal system under the study comprised incineration of the whole waste, reclamation by the sectionally controlled filling, and biological leachate treatment followed by the adsorption by activated carbon. The cost of incineration is the largest portion as much as 86% of the total cost. The effects of parameters such as the transportation distance, the amount of waste disposed, and the efficiency of biological leachate treatment on the optimal system design were also examined.