Polyfunctional plants for industrial waste disposal: a case study for small enterprises

Waste production represents a very critical problem for small enterprises which have to take charge of disposal activities and their related costs but cannot afford autonomous solutions owing to technical and financial constraints. For this kind of enterprise, polyfunctional plants appear to be one of the most promising solutions that show ability in the treatment and disposal of a wide range of wastes, performing collection and storage tasks too. At the same time, such plants allow stricter environmental control, an increased reuse of both waste materials and energy and, finally, lower capital and operating costs. In this paper a case study referring to small and very small enterprises in the Rome industrial area is presented. After characterization of the reference scenario, leading to an annual amount of about 165000 tons of waste to be treated, the technoeconomic feasibility study of the plant has been carried out. Overall economic evaluation indexes and risk analysis of the investment are also presented.