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Economics of Solid Waste Management

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Waste to Wealth

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

The concept of gazing trash or waste as a worthwhile resource is augmenting exponentially. Despite its worthiness, there are distinct factors which affect the profitability of a plant which processes waste to worthwhile products such as fuels, fertilizers, energy, or chemicals. There is the adequate literature of different processing methods of wastes; however, the majority of the studies do not consider economic perspective. This chapter focusses on the economics of handling wastes including collection and transportation and processing it into value-added products such as compost, electricity, or fuel. Different countries have different legislation for waste handling, and this chapter addresses the waste handling costs in different countries. Furthermore, the profitability of different processing methods was discussed. The critical factors affecting the profitability of waste treatment and handling were identified, and workable solutions or directions were provided to the scientific community to address the problems with an industrial outlook including profitability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MaREI Centre, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Karthik Rajendran

  2. School of Engineering, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Karthik Rajendran

  3. Agricultural Research Organization, Institute of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences, Newe Ya’ar Research Center, 30095, Ramat Yishay, Israel

    V. Sudharsan Varma

  4. Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 97331, USA

    Durga Madhab Mahapatra

  5. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Dhamodharan Kondusamy

Authors
  1. Karthik Rajendran
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  2. V. Sudharsan Varma
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  3. Durga Madhab Mahapatra
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  4. Dhamodharan Kondusamy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karthik Rajendran .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DBT-Energy Bioscience Overseas Fellow, DBT-IOC Center for Advanced Bio-Energy Research, Indian Oil Corporation Limited R & D Campus, Faridabad, Haryana, India

    Reeta Rani Singhania

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rashmi Avinash Agarwal

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Arunai Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India

    R. Praveen Kumar

  4. Biofuels and Biorefineries Section, Microbial Processes and Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    Rajeev K Sukumaran

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Rajendran, K., Sudharsan Varma, V., Mahapatra, D.M., Kondusamy, D. (2018). Economics of Solid Waste Management. In: Singhania, R., Agarwal, R., Kumar, R., Sukumaran, R. (eds) Waste to Wealth. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7431-8_12

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