Savings to be made are in collection and transport costs and use of energy by producer, rather than by the waste management company. Gasification probably being used in conjunction with on-site use of liquid wastes. Pyrolysis needs a use for residues. These are other thermal systems. Prices very variable, partly to do with ability to use final products.
Costs are for whole process, including secondary treatment or landfill of vitrified product.
Lowest costs will be for plasma systems with high value metal recovery and vitrification with product recycled as building materials. There is insufficient detail in the waste stream data available to enable a comprehensive quantitative assessment of treatment and disposal costs. Data for non-hazardous general industrial and commercial wastes presents a particular difficulty and introduces the greatest uncertainty within the analysis. Given this lack of data, a top-down approach has been adopted to modelling the treatment cost impacts for all waste streams. Considering the prices of other treatment options for non-special solid wastes, it is then possible to formulate cost bands which provide a meaningful discrimination between these technologies.