University Campus Solid Waste Management

Solid-waste management is a complex issue with a wide range of consequences for different organizations. For example, a matter that can have considerable effects on the environment is the more than 13,000 universities worldwide (Hazelkorn 2013), one third of which are based in Europe with a student population of more then 18 million. These organizations generate environmental impacts through both direct activities, such as the use of classrooms, laboratories, offices, and catering (commuting and consumption of food and drink at work by students) and indirect activities such as the waste treatment facilities (Adelman 2009).

Universities are considered to be similar to small towns because of their large size, large population, and various complex activities taking place on campuses (Alshuwaikhat and Abubakar 2008). As such, they not only need to maintain an appropriate physical infrastructure, physical infrastructure, but they also require services similar to those in small towns including accommodation, transport, retail, leisure, and, of course, solid-waste management.

Various models have been introduced in solid waste–management systems with the capability to analyze, evaluate, or predict future outcomes. LCA is a necessary tool in evaluating the environmental load generated from an activity or a product by means of identifying and quantifying the energy and material utilized, the generation of solid waste emitted in to the environment, and the impacts of such.

An investigation on institutional waste was investigated at the pilot campus in the first step of the designing. In the next steps, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) were carried out to assess the potential of environmental impacts and to consider the economic aspects of solid-waste management.

Results of the domestic waste‒composition investigation for different categories of the campus are explained in this chapter. This includes faculties, dormitories, administrations, cafeterias, services, and residential buildings along with solid-waste generation by different types of electronic waste, construction waste, and garden waste.

Whole solid wastes of the campus are divided into three categories: 60 % organic waste, 20 % recyclable materials, and 20 % other waste. Of organic wastes, 20 % is compostable waste, which could be treated by a composting method in gardening and landscaping. Other organic wastes (40 %) are treated by an anaerobic digestion method. The produced fertilizer could be applied in gardening and landscaping on the campus. Other solid wastes are treated using the RDF method. Electricity generated from RDF and anaerobic digestion could be consumed inside the campus. Nonrecyclable, noncompostable, and noncombustible wastes (<1 %) are taken outside of the campus for landfilling. Recyclable materials (20 %) would be sold to recycling centers to generate revenue.

Domestic waste‒composition investigation into different solid waste‒generation sources shows that the largest amount of domestic waste is generated at dormitories and faculties. Managing and controlling domestic-waste generation at dormitories and cafeterias has a significant effect of reducing organic waste and could reduce half of the total domestic waste. According to the comparison of recyclable materials generated from different sources, the results show that the most important sources of recyclable materials generation are dormitories because they generate 40 % of these materials follows by faculties, with 27 % generation. Therefore, dormitories and faculties are two hot spots in terms of recyclable-materials generation that should be considered. Comparing materials collected at the source and those existing in disposable waste shows that the greatest part of recyclable materials generated are transferred for disposal and more than 25 % could not be collected more than 25 % at the source. Furthermore, 3.6 tons of compostable waste, 1.6 tons of recyclable materials, and 1.9 tons of usable waste for the anaerobic-digestion method are generated per day. According to the solid-waste composition, some solid waste‒management scenarios were suggested, and they were compared using LCA and AHP. Combining of the life-cycle analysis (LCA) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) results in the cluster-analysis method illustrates that scenario 5—by integration of 20 % RDF, 40 % composting, 20 % anaerobic digestion, and 20 % recycling—is the most appropriate solid waste‒management system.