Economic evaluation of waste management options for remote areas

Municipal solid waste management is one of the most pressing issues of today’s societies as the consequences of growing economies in waste generation have serious effects on the environment. These effects are even more difficult to tackle in remote areas such as islands or mountainous areas, both types of which are dominant in the Greek topography. More specifically, the current situation is compared financially to a municipal solid waste transportation scenario for treatment in large scale facilities. A statistical analysis of population data and waste generation in the past years will be used to predict the future waste generation in the examined regions. This research concentrates on areas where sanitary landfills are either obsolete or non-existent, and where the common practice is using open dumps. Using geographical data in conjunction with satellite information and some rough estimations for fuel cost in the future, transportation costs are calculated. Advantages of the examined scenario are not limited to monetary terms, but also include social gains for these regions along with new job opportunities. Potential benefits arising from the concentration of transported waste will be explored, and the scope for further research will be presented.