Feasibility assessment of waste management and treatment in Jordan

Recently, Jordan has introduced the integrated solid waste management (SWM) concept. Collection and sorting, composting, incineration of medical waste and sanitary landfills are starting to be implemented, while recycling, reuse and resource recovery are still in the initial stages. In Jordan, up to 50% of the generated waste goes uncollected, and the waste that is collected is mainly mixed with industrial and medical waste during handling and disposal. The typical method of municipal waste disposal in Jordan is landfill, which is poorly managed and lacks most of the basic engineering and sanitary measures for the collection and treatment of gas and leachate. The inability of the existing waste management systems to cope with the growing waste generation rates has led to significant health and environmental problems in Jordan. The problem represents a measurable threat to public health and environmental quality and requires national attention of the highest priority and urgency. The large influx of refugees, the increase of per capita solid waste (SW) generation rates, the impact of dumping SW in non-engineered landfills, the gaps in current related legislation, as well as the absence of proper practices for SW collection and management are the key challenges making this problem highly complicated for the government bodies responsible for handling and managing SW. Therefore, a fresh view is required. There is a need for action. A new integrated SW management system focusing on the overall SW management cycle (street-cleaning, collection, transfer and transport, treatment and disposal) and supplemented by legal, organisational and institutional recommendations is required to ensure optimum results throughout the Kingdom. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the MSW treatment practices in Jordan in order to submit possible treatment approaches, which could be adopted and implemented locally, for sustainable solid waste management in the future. This PhD was conducted in four phases. The first phase was the evaluation of the current situation of SWM practices in Jordan. In this phase, a comprehensive overview of the current situation of the waste management system in Jordan was undertaken. The second phase was an examination of the possibility of optimising the collection route by implementing a route-solving solution using advanced software, the ArcGIS Network Analyst tool, that can lead to benefits related to substantial cost savings, CO${}_2$ emissions and so forth. To this end, a Geographic Information System (GIS) has been created based on data collection involving GPS tracking (collection route/bin position). Both key performance and key operational costs indicators of the actual state (Scenario S0) were evaluated, and by modifying particular parameters, other scenarios were generated and analysed to identify optimal routes. The third phase was the assessment of the compost produced from source-separated organic materials. The study was conducted to explore the physical and chemical properties of compost made from different segregated bio-waste raw materials. The compost produced was monitored in terms of moisture content, bulk density, pH, EC, total organic carbon, total organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium and C/N ratio, heavy metal concentrations and compost respiration. Final product quality was examined and assessed against the quality specifications of the German End of Waste Criteria for bio-waste (BioAbfV) which has been subjected to composting. The fourth phase was the investigation of the potential for refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production and utilisation as an alternative fuel for the Jordanian cement industry by using the biodrying process as a solution for the conditions in Jordan to overcome some of its MSW management problems. During this study, laboratory analysis of RDF samples was carried out, to evaluate the RDF quality and compare it with criteria and limits set by some European countries. The biological drying process of solid waste by aerated windrow composting was used as a method of pre-treatment of mixed MSW prior to landfill, in order to produce high calorific material RDF and recover valuable material from the waste stream. Furthermore, the performance of the biological drying process of solid waste by aerated windrow composting was investigated as a pilot scale experiment carried out in Jordan. In conclusion, the findings indicate that GIS-based optimised scenarios could serve as an efficient management tool for the daily operations of solid waste collection and transportation. From an economic point of view, compared to the current situation, the results show that the proposed scenarios allow significant savings of about 23% in overall operational costs. Moreover, vehicle operating time was seen to decrease by 30%, in addition to other extra benefits related to CO${}_2$ emissions. A good alternative for Jordan is the composting of source-separated organic materials. A high quality compost with acceptable chemical properties (OM, TOC, TKN, total P, total K, heavy metals) and physical properties (bulk density, moisture content, etc.) was produced. The absence of local standards, monitoring systems and the legal barriers prevent the control of the sale and application of the compost produced to end users on agricultural/horticultural land. Overall, the results conclude that an efficient waste treatment system could be achieved with a fairly basic and low-cost MBT concept. This is by utilising the biological drying process to produce a substitute fuel for industrial processes. This would reduce the landfill areas required, as well as reduce the air emissions from the landfill, in particular greenhouse gases. High capital investment is needed to set up an RDF plant. However, return on investment is not guaranteed to treat the designated waste quantity for all cases. Therefore, the success of SWM is based on the partnership and cooperation between different parties involved (politicians, local private sector, public sector and international consultant companies). The selection of the appropriate solution for MSW must be based on many factors, such as the availability of land for disposal, the market for recyclable material and the need for energy production, and taking into account the economic and social aspects, with particular attention to environmental issues.