Keywords: municipal solid waste, recycling, aid decision method, expert choice.

Today, there is a great concern about the final destination of municipal solid waste because of the environmental and social concerns related to: groundwater contamination; health risks from gases and waste: greenhouse gas production; and the finite life of landfill. Zapotlán (or Ciudad Guzman) municipal government aims to implement a source separated recycling program of its municipal solid waste (MSW), this is in order to reduce the volume of landfill required and to recover a fraction of the waste management costs via the trade of the materials recovered. The estimate of the life of the landfill is fifteen years. As the first and unique Mexican's city that will start a recycling program of their MSW, it is necessary to implement guidelines to select the best alternatives for collection and separation programs while taking into consideration the municipality's economic limitations and the potential to recuperate funds from recyclable materials. During spring 2001, MSW samples were taken following a geo-economical distribution of the population in order to complete the characterization of the MSW. Various scenarios for collection and transport were designed based on the newly acquired characterization data. Estimates of the potential recuperation rates were calculated and used to design these programs. In recent years, there has been an increasing utilization of multiple criteria decision methods analysis (MCDA), for the evaluation of options in MSW management issues. In this project we used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) [1,2,3]. Three collection waste options and two waste separation methods were evaluated using the model EXPERT CHOICE. The model considered: economic, technical, environmental and social criteria in the selection of the best option.

Thus, the project's objectives included the design of several options of management. Four alternatives of collection and two alternatives of sorting are proposed. (i) the collection of mixed MSW, (ii) the collection door-to-door of MSW with containers of 64L provided to each residence, (iii) the collection in permanent sites of collection by using barrels of 200L and (iv) the collection by permanent sites by using travelling containers of 360L. These alternatives were compared using Analysis Hierarchical Processes (AHP) and its software version EXPERT CHOICE as an aid to the decision method in order to select the best alternative.

The best alternative obtained after EXPERT CHOICE and the sensitivity analysis is that of the collection door to door. The second best alternative was the selective collection with permanent collection sites using barrels of 200L. A thorough study is recommended to solve the problems with the MSWL. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the project a study should measure the population's willingness and acceptance of the best alternative.

1

Cheng, S. Chan, C.W., Huang, G.H., "Using multiple criteria decision analysis for supporting decisions of solid waste management", Journal of Environnemental Sciences and Health, 37 : 975-990, 2002. doi:10.1081/ESE-120004517

2

Chung, S.S., Poon, C.S., "Evaluating waste management alternatives by the multiple criteria approach", Resources, conservation and recycling, 17 : 189-210, 1996. doi:10.1016/0921-3449(96)01107-X

3

Galvez-Cloutier R., Ferigutti S., Dubé J.S., "Approche méthodologique pour la tranformation progressive d'un centre de transfert en centre de substances dangereuses", Vecteur environnement, 31: 25-37, 1998.

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