Abstract
The present states of the municipal solid wastes (MSW) in developing areas were studied in the first place. The amount of the wastes increased remarkably with economic and population growths. The wastes contained large amount of food waste and, thus, that of moisture. Almost all amounts of the wastes were landfilled directly without any pre-treatment. These situations of the municipal solid wastes resulted in the latest serious shortage of the landfill site and environmental problems around the site. Usable form of energy was hardly recovered from the wastes. Secondly, we selected respective waste treatment methods applicable to the MSW management in the developing areas and compared them. Since the selected methods had both merits and demerits, it was pointed out that these methods should be used together to make up for their demerits with one another. According to these studies of the municipal solid wastes and treatment methods, the MSW management process consisting of methane fermentation, composting, and incineration followed by the landfill was synthesized for the developing areas. The process was simulated with the various kinds of parameters related to the properties of municipal solid waste in the developing areas, the treatment methods, and so forth. The simulation showed that the rates of the wastes and the moistures landfilled and accumulated in the site decrease considerably and the energy can be recovered especially from the methane fermentation and incineration as a sufficient electrical power to operate the whole process. Consequently, this was proposed as a novel MSW management process in the developing areas.
