Roles of waste pre-treatment unit to support waste to energy sustainability

Abstract

Improper waste management in big cities, especially DKI Jakarta, causes increasing the burden of the landfill so that it becomes full quickly. It is very troublesome to find land for a new landfill because there has been a lot of land use as residences. The result is an increase in the amount of waste that is discharged outside the landfill causing environmental damage and danger to human health. Waste processing with using thermal technology (Waste to Energy/WtE) is one alternative to overcome these problems. Since the condition of waste in Indonesia is mixed waste and most types of waste are organic waste, it is necessary to pre-process waste before waste enters the incinerator. The waste pre-treatment unit has any significant roles in the sustainability of WtE. There have not been many previous studies that explain this role. The purpose of this paper is to study the significant roles using the study of literature. These roles include: 1) improve the waste quality that will enter the incineration process; 2) reduce the Plant capacity so that it can reduce the WtE's total costs; 3) facilitate waste hierarchy approach in WtE Pilot Project activities.