Expert-Analytical Estimation of Environmental Safety of Solid Household Waste Handling Processes

Abstract

One of the key indicators of regional development is environ- mentally safe handling of waste including household waste. Solving the problems in this domain requires the creation of an efficient household waste management system. A mechanism for solving this problem was proposed in this study. In contrast to the existing ones, it comprehensively takes into account the formation of environmen- tal hazards at all stages of the waste handling life cycle and substan- tiates and identifies priorities of obligatory management measures to be taken at local, regional and national levels with their qualitative and quantitative expert estimation. The study of waste hierarchy performed according to the Di- rective 2008/98/EC by the hierarchy analysis method has made it possible to determine not only the priorities of the measures en- suring environmental safety of SHW handling process but also the significance of measures at each stage. According to the calculations, contributions to the overall risk amounted to 46.15 % for disposal, 24.02 % for recycling, 10.95 % for neutralization, 10.95 % for genera- tion, 5.14 % for collection and 2.79 % for transportation. Assessment of the factor characteristics has made it possible to find out that the handling conditions whose contribution is 54.95 % of all factors require the greatest attention during danger generation. Effectiveness of implementation of the measures ensuring nor- mative environmental safety can be ranked as follows: 60.22 % for the local level, 22.55 % for the regional level and 17.23 % for the national level. The study has found that the formation of awareness, conscien- tiousness, and rational consumption is the most effective measure of ensuring environmental safety making up 27.55 % among the thirteen measures assessed. Application of the proposed method will ensure making groun- ded managerial decisions not only for the whole system of household waste handling but also for each of its stages: from waste generation to its operation. This method is quite simple to use and can be applied at the national, regional or local levels.