Regional Planning And Economic Sustainability Issues Of Municipal Swm: Experience From Greece Relevant To The Black-Sea Countries

Abstract

Some important solid waste management issues at the strategic regional planning level are presented in this paper, based on specific experience gained from the Thrace region of northern Greece whose population is approximately 300,000. In doing so, a regional SWM model is outlined with 50 avaiable candidate facilities (such as transfer stations, landfills, sorting and composting plants) spread over an existing road network.

The model chooses a combination that minimi zes total system cost over a planning horizon by making trade-offs between economies of scale of regional central facilities and transportation costs. Critical ranges of unit transport cost and revenue per unit of the recovered material are established. The setting-up cost of the infrastructure facilities is discussed from a sustainability viewpoint with regard to issues such as the point-of-view of the feasibility analysis (which sets the boundaries of the analysis and deter-mines the cost elements involved), length of the planning horizon, value of the investment discounting rate, treatment of ‘free’ grants, and the design capacity of facility (waste reduction policies versus economics of scale). Finally, some comments are made on how the experience gained could be useful to other countries, especially to those in the southern Black Sea region, with particular reference to waste management hierarchy and the issue of integrated solid waste management.