MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTES ENERGY RECOVERY TECHNOLOGIES IN GREECE

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is the field of science which explores and evolves strategies minimizing the final amount of wastes delivered to landfills and reducing the corresponding pollution related to all stages of treatment and collection. In the best practices of MSW the inherent energy of wastes is being recovered. In this study, the most appropriate energy recovery methods utilizing MSW for Greece (i.e. Sorting plant at landfill site with biogas recovery and RDF production, Incineration of MSW with small pre-treatment and Controlled landfill site with biogas recovery) are investigated based on the composition of wastes, the compatibility of the methods with the EU legislation, their technical availability, energy recovery capacity and contribution to the national energy balance, as well as economic issues, the maturity of the technologies involved and the land occupation requirements. A detailed multi-criteria analysis is applied considering the expected MSW production of Greece until 2020 along with different scenarios of waste utilization. Based on the results obtained, as well as on the elaboration of a sensitivity analysis, the "Controlled landfill" method is designated as the most prevalent energy recovery method for Greece, although under specific prioritization of the main parameters involved, the "Incineration" may be equally appropriate as well.