Evaluation of multifarious solid waste management systems--a goal programming approach

Globally the waste management systems are becoming resource generative by incorporating energy and material recovery components in the systems. These systems are expected to meet several objectives and thus cannot be analysed effectively by optimising models using single objective like cost minimisation. To study the system's performance under varying priority structures of the conflicting objectives an interactive goal programming model of multi-objective planning of the system is proposed. The model is applied to visualise the system performance for a typical county region and accordingly its utility has been demonstrated. The application highlights the effect of change in priority structure on the extent of meeting the objectives. The proposed analytical tool facilitates the use of the model for tactical and strategical planning not only in developed countries like the UK but would provide better insight in developing energy and material recovery units in developing countries like India.