Abstract
The mass-consumption, mass-waste society faces problems such as a major increase in the volume and types of waste, and increased difficulty in optimal waste processing. As a result, the attainment of a recycling society is thought to require a total restructuring of today's social, economic and technical systems. It is hoped that a system will be developed capable of separating out raw garbage from household wastes, including from disposers. This paper discusses methods of comprehensive assessment from the simultaneous viewpoints of environmental effect, user convenience and economy. The urban environmental infrastructure, including disposers and recycling systems, are evaluated based on the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC). In addition, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is examined as a tool to integrate criteria evaluation for multi-objective decision-making.
