Dealing with large-scale Food and Biodegradable Waste (FBW) often results in many logistical problems and environmental impacts to be considered. These can become great hindrances when the integration of solid waste management is concerned. Extra care is needed to plan such waste disposal or treatment services and facilities, especially with respect to the ecological impact. Decision-making with regards to the sustainable use of these facilities also involves tradeoffs between a number of conflicting objectives, since increasing one benefit may decrease the others. In this study a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is presented to evaluate different waste management options and their applicability in Japan. The analytical process aims at selecting the most suitable waste treatment option, using pairwise comparisons conducted within a decision hierarchy that was developed through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results of this study show that anaerobic digestion should be chosen as the best FBW treatment option with regards to resource recovery. The study also presents some conditions and recommendations that can enhance the suitability of other options like incineration and composting.
Recently, the popularity of anaerobic digestion (AD) has been increasing, and selecting a site for AD is a complex process for both individuals and decision-makers. This process requires the selected site to fulfill all regulation requirements, simultaneously reducing environmental, sociocultural, technical, political, economic, and public health costs. A geographic-information-system-based multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) is presented in this study to evaluate and examine the suitability of the study area in order to propose a suitable site for an AD facility in Oita City, Japan. Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) was used to standardize the map layers into fuzzy membership functions. The proximity variables were classified into seven factors and three constraint groups, specifically, environmental, sociocultural, and technical/economic criteria. The proximity and criteria maps were combined using weighted linear combination (WLC) techniques, and the resulting suitability map was evaluated on a grading scale of 0-255 B. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) ranking analysis indicated that an area of about 13.36 km 2 from the entire study area is the most suitable and that the remaining two options are still suitable for the intended purpose, but the entire decision will be entrusted to the decision-makers' judgment.
As the generation of food scrap, kitchen, and biodegradable wastes increases, the proper handling of these wastes is becoming an increasingly significant concern for most cities in Japan. A substantial fraction of food and biodegradable waste (FBW) ends up in the incinerator. Therefore, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) benefit–cost analysis technique was employed in this study to compare different FBW treatment technologies and select the most appropriate FBW disposal technology for Oita City. The four FBW treatment options considered were those recommended by the Japanese Food Waste Recycling Law: anaerobic digestion, compost, landfill, and incineration, which is currently in use. The fundamental AHP was separated into two hierarchy structures for benefit analysis and cost analysis. The criteria used in these two analyses were value added, safety, efficiency, and social benefits for benefit analysis, and cost of energy, cost of operation and maintenance, environmental constraints, and disamenity for cost analysis. The results showed that anaerobic digestion had the highest overall benefit while composting had the least cost overall. The benefit–cost ratio result showed that anaerobic digestion is the most suitable treatment alternative, followed by composting and incineration, with landfill being the least favored. The study recommends that composting could be combined with anaerobic digestion as an optimal FBW management option in Oita City.
The long-term plan of any city in Japan is to become a material recycling society. The use of all types of municipal waste is essential in maximizing the full potential of material recovery. As such, municipalities are responsible for managing their waste, including food and biodegradable waste (FBW), and this results in some complex schemes. This study uses the system dynamics approach to illustrate and investigate the benefits of separate treatment of FBW. At the same time, to understand the dynamic interactions between all aspects and elements of the current municipal solid waste management system in Oita City. The developed model includes total environmental benefit, motivation to manage waste and resources, and yield from treatment facilities. The result shows that with the introduction of an anaerobic digester (AD) plant for FBW increases the efficiency of incineration. Furthermore, the result indicates that strengthening the regulation of waste sorted and the reduction in the amount of FBW treated in incineration will improve the current system. This study concludes that any policy or regulation less than the proposed result will yield less benefit. Thus, strengthening regulation is a crucial part of the sustainability of FBW management in the long run.
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