Processing and Recovery of Municipal Solid Waste

Solid waste is rapidly becoming a major pollutant. Instead of mere disposal, solid waste may be considered a resource for reclamation or by-product manufacture. Overall systems for processing and recovery of solid waste may include three major component subsystems: size reduction, separation and recovery processes. Available performance and cost characteristics of equipment and systems in all three areas are summarized. Promising systems for solid waste processing and recovery are identified and the need for additional information from research and demonstration projects is stressed. It is concluded that the manufacture of by-products from solid waste may offer more long-term economic potential than material salvage alone, and that while solid waste processing and recovery may never become economic in the classical engineering sense, the social costs associated with disposal-oriented methods of solid waste management may provide a strong motivation for continued development of solid waste recovery techniques.