AHP approach : a decision making analysis for assessing an integrated sustainable solid waste management system for AUB campus and its neighborhood -

Abstract

Applications of energy recovery from solid wastes are widely practiced; however, the utmost economic and environmental benefit for Lebanon would be reducing the amount of waste production and reusing unpreventable wastes as part of the waste management strategy. In an effort for the American University of Beirut to become a leader in sustainability in the Middle East, this project aims to implement an integrated sustainable solid waste management system to treat the wastes produced on campus and its neighborhood. The adoption of a sustainable waste management strategy would provide an additional renewable energy source, besides mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Lebanon’s current waste treatment strategy. This report represents the first initiative towards potential waste management facilities on college campuses in Lebanon and the Middle East. The implementation of a sustainable solid waste management is a complex process. Thus, this dissertation presents the viable options available in order to reduce the environmental impact of wastes and to exploit the produced wastes as an energy resource. The analysis is conducted using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which allows decision makers to make simple pairwise comparison judgments throughout the hierarchy to arrive at overall priorities for alternatives. The decision problem involved environmental, sociocultural, technical, and economic factors. The results of this analytical process revealed that anaerobic digestion should be the first choice for MSW treatment, given that clear and efficient policies are made available to encourage waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. This vision is based upon the waste hierarchy, and would definitely contribute to expanding renewable energy sources on the university campus.