Environmental Impacts Assessment of the Transformation of Municipal Solid Waste Process of Tabriz City

Background & Objectives: Waste processing is one of the most important elements responsible for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of Tabriz urban solid waste and, finally, assess the environmental impacts of proposed scenarios for the management of MSW in Tabriz in 2017. Methods: In this descriptive study, the required data were collected from field observations, collecting library data, physical analysis with 4 sampling steps in 4 seasons in accordance with ASTM standard method. 4 scenarios (energy generation and composting, energy generation, composting, current status) were proposed and environmental impact assessment of proposed scenarios with Iranian leopold matrix. Results: An average of 1438 tons per day of MSW is collected from the city of Tabriz and the average per capita waste production for this city is 0.804 kg per person per day.. The average thermal energy generated from the total waste of Tabriz city is 7965 Kj/Kg. The results of the evaluation using the Leopold matrix showed that Scenario 1 (energy generation and composting) with a score of 171 was considered as the best scenario and scenario 4 (current status) with 212 points was the worst management scenario. Conclusion: In the present situation, planning and adopting appropriate measures to reduce negative environmental impacts, composing and energy generation can be appropriate for the management of MSW in Tabriz.