Comparison of municipal solid waste treatment capacity in China: a tournament graph method

The amount of municipal solid waste generated has been increasing leaps and bounds in China over the years, causing widespread concern over the society’s capability to manage urban solid waste. Assessing the capacity for urban solid waste treatment has, therefore, become increasingly important. A pilot program focusing on municipal solid waste source-separated collection was launched in China’s eight major cities in 2000. Using the method of coefficient of variation to determine the appropriate index system weight, we developed a tournament graph method to assess and rank the capacity of municipal solid waste treatment across eight pilot cities. The results reveal the following ranking of solid waste treatment capacity: Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen and Guilin. Among the eight cities, Guilin appears the weakest in the capacity of solid waste treatment. The evaluation results are basically consistent with the present situation. In addition, this study found that differences in investment in treatment facilities led to a gap in the quality and quantity of waste treatment equipment, which resulted in widening differences in treatment capacity among the eight pilot cities. The tournament graph method helps identify and understand the strength of the top-ranked pilot cities in municipal solid waste treatment capacity.