Social acceptance for the development of a waste-to-energy plant in an urban area

Public acceptance is considered most critical for the effectiveness of any integrated Municipal Solid Waste management scheme. Especially for alternatives widely debated, such as waste-to-energy (WtE) in areas without any prior experience, the widely discussed “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) syndrome needs to be considered when planning the development of the required infrastructure. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted in order to assess social acceptance for the development of a WtE facility in Thessaloniki, Greece. Face-to-face interviews revealed a rather positive – compared to waste landfilling – public attitude on the integration of thermal treatment in the local waste management strategy, on the contrary to what was initially expected. However, the NIMBY syndrome is evidently portrayed between the lines in the analysis, while also responses reflect a significant gap of information at the level of local communities.

► A MSW management scheme success depends on its acceptance by local community ► NIMBY is more intense for areas without previous experience on waste incineration ► NIMBY × NIMBY = NIMBY2 ► Positive attitude towards thermal treatment noted, at least compared to landfilling ► Environmental managers should focus on building confidence in their design