A Techno-Economic Analysis of Sustainable Material Recovery Facilities: The Case of Al-Karak Solid Waste Sorting Plant, Jordan

Solid waste sorting facilities are constructed and operated to properly manage solid waste for both material and energy recovery. This paper investigates the possible technical and economic performance of the Al-Karak solid waste sorting plant in order to achieve financial sustainability and increase the profits that return on the plant to cover its operating costs. A standard procedure was followed to quantify and characterize the input materials of commercial solid waste by determining the recyclable materials in the sorting products. Thus, possible different equipment and material flows through the plant were proposed. An economic model was used in order to know the feasibility of the proposed options of the plant according to three economic factors, which are net present worth (NPW), return on investment (ROI), and payback period values. The results inferred that the characterization of the input materials contains a high portion of recyclable materials of paper, cardboard, plastic, and metals, which accounted for 63%. In this case, the mass of rejected waste to be landfilled was 9%. Results for the proposed options showed that the economic analysis is feasible when working loads on three and two shifts with ROI values of 4.4 and 3.5 with a payback period of the initial cost in 2 and 3 years, respectively. Working load on one shift was not feasible, which resulted in an ROI value of less than 2 and a payback period larger than 5 years. This paper recommended operating the sorting plant at a higher input feed with a working load on three shifts daily to ensure a maximum profit and to reduce the amount of commercial solid waste prior to landfilling through the concept of sorting and recycling.