Economic Evaluation for Recycling of Organic Waste

Abstract

Depletion of natural resources and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are an important issue which we have to solve. The recycling of waste has emerged as a global concern. In Korea, the development of cost-effective treatment and recycling technologies also need to be improved. In this study, we compared and analyzed the cost per unit of treatment and recycling of organic waste, and presented an effective recycling scheme. We investigated the current status of treatment and costs for six types of organic wastes from 80 workplaces, including organic wastewater treatment sludge, processed organic sludge, and plant residues. In addition, environmental costs for greenhouse gas reduction were calculated. It's an economic way that organic waste is composted and used as cement additives.In particular, the economic analysis was done by realistic results of the survey target companies. In conclusion, in order for reliable processing and recycling of organic wastes, wastewater treatment sludge and sewage sludge need to be classified based on hazard characteristics. Finally, technical difficulties need to be further resolved such as odors, leachate, and debris on recycling organic wastes.

High cost of waste treatment calls for systematic rethinking: A case study for a chemical industrial park in China

“…Studies have revealed the wastewater treatment costs in CIPs, including investment, operation, and maintenance spending (Chen et al, 2013;Long et al, 2018;Nättorp et al, 2017) and costs targeting different discharge emission limits (Lyu et al, 2020). The waste gas treatment (Prado et al, 2009) and solid waste treatment (Yoo et al, 2016) costs have also been explored, and the cost related to greenhouse gas mitigation in solid waste treatment has been widely considered (Guo et al, 2020;He et al, 2013;Otoma & Diaz, 2017;Schneider et al, 2012;You et al, 2016). However, since the pollutants transfer and transform among three phases in waste treatment, the whole-process cost of end-of-pipe treatment is not a simple addition of the costs above but should clarify the relationships and boundaries of gaseous, liquid, and solid pollutants, and then cover the costs incurred in the whole process from waste generation, treatment to final discharge into the environment.…”