Recently, the quantity of municipal waste (MSW) generated in Korea has been rapidly increased in propotion to the living standard advancement. In 1990, 84,000 ton per day of the MSW was generated, and the generation rate per capita was 2.32 kg per day. But these values may be overestimated by volumetric unit, and the weightwise value has been estimated to 1.6 kg per day per capita through some field surveys. Though the overestimation, the weightwise value is also much higher than those of Germany (1.0 kg per day per capita), U.S.A. (1.4 kg per day per capita) and Japan (0.8 kg per day per capita) because of dining pattern difference and briquette ash. Currently, about 95% of the MSW is landfilled in Korea. But shortage of landfill site and the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome raised the necessity of alternative treatment and disposal means, and the optimization of the MSW management system considering local characteristics.
In this study, the predictions of the MSW generation quantity and composition in three different size cities in Korea are performed up to the year of 2010, and the waste management systems are optimized using the predicted results in MSW management. One big, one large and one small cities in Korea are selected to consider the local characteristics ; i.e. A, B and C cities. The MSW generation and composition of those cities are predicted using the model equations based on the raw material consumption, and the waste Resources Allocation program (WRAP) model is used for the optimization of MSW management system.
The MSW management system is constructed by comparing the optimal costs of the alternatives that are scientifically generated according to the source separation type and environmental engineering knowledge. From this study, a new prediction method based on the raw material consumption is obtained as the very useful means to forecast MSW generation. And the various sensitivity analyses are performed to find more real optimum system for the general waste management including the industrial non-hazardous waste.
