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Ongoing and Future Directions of the MSW DST
Citation:
Thorneloe, S. Ongoing and Future Directions of the MSW DST. Recent Development in SWM LCA Workshop, Washington,DC, March 11 - 12, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
To provide update on the municipal solid waste decision support tool (MSW DST) for use in developing more resilient and sustainable solid waste management plans
Description:
Working in collaboration with US and international researchers, we have (1) updated the process models and added anaerobic digestion, (2) added mixed-integer optimization to allow for analysis of MSW system evolution over a period of time and reflecting changes in energy grid over time; (3) provided better visualization of results to track performance and communicate potential benefits of more sustainable strategies to community leaders, and (4) estimate of metrics for cost, LCA environmental and energy tradeoffs, and societal aspects such as land usage and population density. The tool is for use by state and local governments, industry, NGOs, academia, and others interested in a better understanding of sustainable materials management through holistic evaluation of the life cycle of solid waste management.