Full cost accounting on existing and future municipal solid waste management facilities in Greece

Abstract

In this work, we performed a detailed full cost accounting for 7 types of existing and planned municipal solid waste management facilities (sanitary landfills, anaerobic digestion, biodrying, incineration, aerobic mechanical and biological, material recovery and waste transfer stations) in Greece. We used investment costs (IC), operating costs (OC) and future (restoration) costs (FC) to calculate the actual total unit cost (€/t) of the above types of facilities in 2012 prices. Mathematical cost functions were developed to describe the total cost (€/t) as a function of the MSW input rate (t/y). Actual data from several operating facilities in Greece were used, as well as estimated costs from facilities that are planned or are under construction in Greece. Results showed that the sanitary landfills follow the economy of scale with an average total unit cost of €45/t. The unit cost of the planned anaerobic digestion facilities ranged from €50 to €104/t. The biodrying facilities’ unit cost ranged from €48 to €138/t, whilst the sole MSW incineration facility was found to have a unit cost of €115/t. Aerobic MBT facilities did not follow the economy of scale. The average total unit cost from 23 MRFs was €32/t. The depreciated investment cost of 18 waste transfer stations (WTS) ranged from €0.5/t to €28/t.