Municipal Solid Waste Incineration: Requirements for a Successful Project

Solid waste management is in crisis in many of the world's largest urban areas as populations attracted to cities continues to grow. This has led to ever increasing quantities of domestic solid waste while space for disposal decreases. Municipal managers are looking to the development of sanitary landfills around the periphery of their cities as a first solution. However, siting and preparation of a landfill requires the acquisition of large areas as well as good day-to-day operation in order to minimize potential negative environmental impacts. Another approach that has recently caught the attention of decision makers is mass burn incineration similar to systems found in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. However, capital and operating requirements for these plants are generally an order of magnitude greater than required for landfills. Project developers armed with rosy financial forecasts can be found all corners of the globe encouraging municipal officials to consider incineration. The Bank has begun a program of providing high-level advice on approaches that are basically financially self-supporting, socially and environmentally responsible. This technical guidance report provides the foundation for such a detailed evaluation of solid waste incineration systems.