Municipal solid waste disposal and its sustainable development
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With the lack of a management budget and weak policy for waste management of local communities in developing countries, especially for clusters that have the amount of garbage less than 5 tons per day, open dumping or open burning is the most common municipal solid waste (MSW) management, leading to severe impact on the environment. This study focuses on the sustainable development and eco-friendly waste management concept for these local communities. First, public participation campaigns with the 3R's concept (Reduced, Reuse and Recycle) must be launched to reduce and separate waste from households to be mixed with combustible waste, organic waste, and recycled waste. If the separation at the source is successful, the treated waste of about 2.5 tons is divided into wet and dry fractions. The wet fraction can be easily treated by conventional composting to produce soil conditioners and generate income for communities. The dry fraction must be treated by an incinerator. However, due to the high moisture content and low heating value of the waste, the incinerator needs to run with additional fossil fuel, causing high operating costs. Therefore, a novel hybrid incineration-gasification system has been introduced in this study to use Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) prepared by dry fraction as feedstock to a downdraft gasifier. The producer gas generated from the gasifier can be used to substitute fossil fuel. This sustainable and eco-friendly model of waste management can be used as a prototype model for other rural areas in low or low-middle income countries.