The siting of waste management facilities and consideration of technological options for treatment and disposal are an important aspect of resource conservation and management. On a regional basis, strategic planning aimed at cost efficiency and reduction of quantities of wastes disposed is a highly complex and involved process.
Author Hans Gottinger takes the trained reader through a concise and detailed tour of approaches aimed at addressing complex regional solid waste management issues. Substantial problems of waste generation prediction, site selection, facility operation, vehicle routing and treatment technologies are examined. This is followed by an extensive historical survey of available international work on applications of operations research, management science techniques, and systems analysis. The survey provides a comprehensive indication of major trends of (through mid-1980s) approaches. Next, a presentation of static models for regional waste management systems is given, and examples of case applications illustrate possibilities that have been realized through application of this approach. Some discussion of multiperiod planning is included, together with suggestions for an econometric approach toward identifying demand, waste generation, supply sources, production and cost functions.
The text is somewhat dated. The literature and work surveyed is largely that of investigations performed prior to 1985. Moreover, it would have been instructive to see a more inclusive and detailed discussion of other models employed during the late 1970s and 80s, for example, the Resource Recovery Planning Model (RRPLAN) of Chapman and Yakowitz, which saw extensive testing and application.
One aspect of solid waste management that could have perhaps been stressed further is the nature of problems that arise owing to poor or scarce data or of data that are difficult to interpret. The author does touch on these issues, but a more detailed presentation of how these issues can be better addressed by solid waste management practitioners would be instructive. Even in today's environment, problems with data are manifest.
Since the time period that is covered by this text, significant advances have taken place regarding the availability and power of 'desk-top', user-friendly PC-based computational tools. Most of the traditional models, including RRPLAN, provided a fixed format for all output reports, were built for execution on a mainframe computer and were often not highly modular, leading to complex calculation routines and somewhat restricted computational efficiencies. A follow-up discussion of possibilities for modification and adaptation of models to desk-top systems would have been useful.