Feasibility Assessment of Waste Separation Plant Implementation Using System Dynamics in a Small Municipality

Abstract

Introduction:  Solid waste is a global problem that becomes serious in countries with lax laws and poor waste management strategies. In such countries, the decision to build waste separation and processing plants rests with politicians with little or no environmental feasibility study. In Mexico, more than 900 grams of waste are produced per capita daily, with only 9% being recycled. Adopting measures such as separation at source and a sorting plant emerges as an effective strategy, reducing costs and even projecting income.                       

Method: This study focuses on a small municipality, where an average of 310 grams of waste is generated daily, contributing about 5 tons to the landfill. Because the population of this municipality is highly mobile, it is an ideal area to extrapolate the results to large cities with floating populations. The system dynamics serves to include the population mobility rate in waste separation plant feasibility.                       

Results: Based on a system dynamics approach and considering the population dynamics, it is shown that implementing a waste separation plant is feasible. In addition, the mobility rate of the population is considered, and its influence on the generation and possible separation of waste is analyzed.                       

Conclusion: One of the main contributions of this work is that the model generated considers the influence of population mobility on waste generation and the feasibility of building a waste separation plant.