A Benefit–Cost Analysis of Food and Biodegradable Waste Treatment Alternatives: The Case of Oita City, Japan

Abstract

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.

Factors Influencing the Willingness of Dairy Farmers to Adopt Biogas Plants: A Case Study in Hokkaido, Japan

“…There should also be subsidies for their operation, such as FIT schemes (despite the difficult situation they face for power grid use). The effects of BGPs on the environment and dairy farming have already been explained in previous studies, as mentioned above [1,3,5,6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Therefore, it should be emphasized that BGPs are different from other power sources that require policy design, such as preferential grid use and support of continuous FIT schemes.…”

“…The biogas produced from BGPs is also important. ADs in BGPs use organic waste effectively to produce renewable energy that is distributed and can increase self-sufficiency and mitigate climate change [14,15,28]. Distributed, self-sufficient energy is important in Japan given its history of large earthquakes (e.g., the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake) that have cut off the supply of large-scale, centralized power plants [53].…”

“…Most of the dairy farmers have dealt with manure by making composts. However, Babalola (2020) pointed out that BGPs are preferably introduced to treat organic wastes in Japan because of the higher benefits, efficiency and safety, compared to composting, incineration, and landfill [15]. In addition, the utilization of biomass energy has become a global trend as a measure to mitigate climate change and relevant issues, and AD in BGPs has further been enhanced over composting from the viewpoint of energy production, which would be an additional source of income for dairy farmers [15][16][17].…”

Characterization of healthcare waste in Tanzanian zonal referral hospitals as a key factor for energy recovery

“…Paratosh et al (2017), revealed that conversion of food waste into energy via anaerobic processes in terms of methane is economically worthwhile. According to Babalola (2020), the most appropriate alternative aimed at handling food waste is anaerobic digestion followed by composting. Incineration turn out to be the third most suitable alternative in terms of the overall results, while landfilling is presumed to be the worst case because of the substantial costs and low benefits.…”

Assessment of the Quality of Liquid Digestate from Small-scale Anaerobic Biodigesters Used for Crop Irrigation in Urban and Peri-urban Maseru, Lesotho

“…AD is a process, which involves the breaking down of biodegradable organic matter by the action of bacteria in the absence of oxygen. AD technology has become an attractive and preferred technology around the world through the waste-to-energy option to deal with the ever increasing amount of waste generated [3,4,5]. In the production of biogas the AD process is carried out in a reactor, which is a sealed vessel whose design and construction is dictated by the specific site conditions and feedstock.…”