Thermal Utilization of Municipal Solid Waste in the Central Region of Mexico

The Latin American and Caribbean region are the most urbanized of the developing countries, with around 80% of its population living in urban areas. Mexico City, with 19 million inhabitants, is the most populated agglomeration in Latin America, concentrating 30% of the national population, and more than 60% of municipal solid waste (MSW) is sent to landfills. In 2014, to reduce the MSW sent to landfills, the city government set a goal to increase the inorganic waste sent to cement kilns. As a result of an agreement with a national cement company, during 2018, 4% (280, 736 t per year) of the MSW of Mexico City was sent for cogeneration in cement kilns. Besides that, one of the main strategies for mitigating climate change in Mexico is increasing the production of Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) from waste in cement kilns from 10% in 2017 up to 30%. The purpose of this work is to show the benefits, in terms of reduced greenhouse gases, of using cement kilns to process the MSW that cannot be recycled or composted in the principal urban centers in the central region of the country instead of sending it to landfills. The method to be used considers making a comparison between the average values of greenhouse gas emissions in sanitary landfills and cogeneration in cement kilns, including transport, and that the cement industry is one of the most important in the country.