An evaluation guideline for waste treatment technologies

Abstract

Establishing a responsible waste treatment system for municipal solid waste is of great importance for the future of the environment and mankind. There exists a great variety of waste treatment technologies which are offered on the German market which can be divided into three main groups: the mechanical biological treatment, the thermal treatment and the material specific treatment. In order to find the most appropriate treatment technology for a district or a municipality it is necessary to find a way to evaluate the technologies regarding their monetary, technical and environmental aspects. The focus of this thesis was to develop an evaluation guideline for waste treatment technologies covering these aspects by combining useful aspects of already existing evaluation models with new ideas. In order to ensure the general applicability of the evaluation guideline it is structured using the multiple criteria decision analysis methodology, in particular the Multi-Attribute Value Function method which is applied by the VISA software (Visual Interactive Sensitivity Analysis). This ensures that the decision maker is guided through the whole evaluation process along a well-structured framework. Nevertheless the evaluation guideline still leaves the decision maker a high degree of flexibility because he/ she can modify the model by adding new criteria, changing the alternatives under consideration, incorporating his/ her own preferences, etc. This flexibility allows the decision maker to build his/ her own model which is perfectly adapted to the individual situation of the problem. The evaluation guideline is tested in two separate examples proving its practicability and presenting its opportunities. Especially the possibilities for displaying the results of the evaluation process are described which are offered by the applied VISA software. A critical outlook rounds off the thesis by presenting further needs for future investigations and research areas.