Waste Management Planning system (WAMPS)

WAMPS- a software tool for waste management planning

As part of the Reco Baltic 21 Tech project, the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has developed a software application called WAMPS (Waste Management Planning System). The application enables the users via a web interface to carry out calculations in order to compare the environmental performance of different types of waste management systems. This is based on life cycle assessment (LCA).

WAMPS is an easy to use application and is primarily to be used as a tool and as a support for decision in the planning process. It can be used for designing the most suitable system from an environmental point of view for waste management in a certain region with its specific conditions. The application requires that the user has basic knowledge about waste management and LCA competence.

The software has been developed during 2011 and 2012. Before being able to use the software, the user must fill in an application for a user account after which login details are sent to the user.

The user has to enter data in the following five consecutive steps, after which the environmental performance is calculated for the study of interest.

1. Composition of waste
In this step, the waste is specified regarding to waste composition and amounts of each waste fractions. Examples of waste fractions are plastic and metal packagings, degradable kitchen waste and hazardous waste.

2. Sorting of waste
In this step, the user specifies and calculates how much waste is material recycled from each waste fraction. In order for a waste fraction to be material recycled, the waste must be sorted, either at source, at a central sorting facility (material recycling facility) or at a mechanical sorting facility (mechanical biological treatment facility) which is defined at this step.

3. Treatment of waste
In this step, the user can define how the waste, that is not material recycled, is treated. For the biodegradable waste, the user specifies how much waste is being composted and how much waste is treated through anaerobic digestion. For the residual waste, i.e. the waste not being material recycled or treated biologically, the user specifies how much waste is landfilled and how much is incinerated. Furthermore the treatments of the output fractions from the mechanical biological treatment are defined in this step. In addition it is specified to what extent any recovery of energy content in the waste occurs.

4. Collection of waste
In the 4th step parameters affecting the environmental performance related to waste collection are specified, such as average distance between collection sites, number of households, average waste load and type of waste collection vehicle carrying out the collection.

5. Transport of waste
In this step, the user specifies parameters affecting the environmental performance for long distance transports, for example to waste treatment plants.

After the 5 steps have been completed, WAMPS shows the results for the specific study. The environmental performances are shown and divided into the environmental impact categories "Global Warming", "Acidification", "Eutrophication" and "Photo oxidant formation". WAMPS also enables the user to compare different waste scenarios of interest and export data to other formats such as Word and Excel in an easy way.

WAMPS will be available for public use in April 2013, see also:
WAMPS online: https://wamps.ivl.se/