Assessment of Energy Saving in Waste Recycling using System Dynamics

DOI: 10.5902/198346597166 Recycling is a topic of great importance in integrated waste management, evidence of this is verified in the National Policy of Solid Waste, decreed in 2010, where it is considered one of the priorities. In this article is presented a computer simulation model, since their development until its validation, which aims to support environmental managers in their decisions regarding the definition and / or maintenance of solid waste policies recycling, as well as evaluating the benefits of process in the environment (in this article we evaluated the energy savings). For the model development was considered: the rate of natural population growth (births and deaths), percentage of solid waste recycled (for each type of material), gravimetric composition of the material in the total waste generated, the amount of waste generated per inhabitant and energy savings caused by each distinct type of material. Through the model results generated, end users (environmental managers) thereof may, for example, set incentives to reduce the total generation of solid waste, produce campaigns enhancing reuse and recycling and to assess the relative benefits of energy savings caused by recycling. Model validation was through analysis of future scenarios for a given municipality in southern Brazil. For modeling and system validation was used Vensim from Ventana Systems.