Costs and cost-effectiveness of recycling of municipal solid waste

Currently, the management of solid waste represents a major economic and environmental issue throughout the world. Trends in waste generation show an increase in the volumes of waste produced in most countries and it is clear that the trend will continue. It is a challenge to reduce the increasing flow of waste. Many management systems of solid waste are based on the waste-generation hierarchy. The hierarchy of priorities for solving waste generation problems is as follows: waste minimization, recycling/reuse, and treatment and disposal. The treatment and disposal of solid waste involves a range of processes including landfill, incineration, composting, all of which may result in emissions to the environment. Despite the fact that properties of the primary materials have been lost, the waste still carries both the value of subjective human work as well as the energy used for their production. This waste constitutes a potential source of secondary materials and fuels. Recycling is the most effective method for solving these problems because it not only reduces amount of waste, but also mitigates the depletion of natural resources resulting from economic development. Due to the fact that, the amount of generated municipal solid waste, is growing year by year, this chapter is connected with waste recycling and also discusses costs and costeffectiveness of recycling of selected municipal solid wastes fraction. This chapter also describes discussion of waste regulation, generation, and composition.