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Current status and future perspectives of solid waste management in Iran: a

critical overview of Iranian metropolitan cities

Article  in  Environmental Science and Pollution Research · November 2019

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-06456-5

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Environmental Science and Pollution Research
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06456-5

REVIEW ARTICLE

Current status and future perspectives of solid waste management

in Iran: a critical overview of Iranian metropolitan cities
Parveen Fatemeh Rupani 1 & Reza Maleki Delarestaghi 2 & Madjid Abbaspour 3 & Mohammad Mobin Rupani 4 &
Hany S. EL-Mesery 5,6 & Weilan Shao 1

Received: 27 May 2019 / Accepted: 6 September 2019

# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
By growing urban population, Iran faces numerous environmental issues and solid waste management is on the top of these
problems. Studies showed that a daily average of 700–1000 g of wastes are produced per person in Iran, in which organic waste
accounts for a significant amount. On the other hand, hospital waste represents a part of the wastes, which need careful
consideration from the environmental point of view. In the present study, the amount, composition, and management of urban
and hospital wastes were evaluated in 7 Iranian metropolises, which account for about 30% of the population and produce about
35% of the country wastes. Based on prior surveys, landfill method is the current main method for waste management in these
cities, which is generally not completely sanitary and therefore causes many environmental problems. The other common
methods for waste management in these cities are composting of organic wastes, and the use of waste conversion methods to
energy. However, the latter is ongoing only in Tehran which also includes some limitations. Therefore, the study also evaluated
the future perspectives and feasibility of waste-to-energy conversion as a promising economic route for waste disposal.

Keywords Solid wastes . Hospital wastes . Landfill . Composting . Renewable energy

Abbreviations Introduction
3Rs Reduction, reuse, and recycling
FOG Fat, oil, and grease Nowadays, the expansion of urbanization and population
GHGs Greenhouse gases growth led to exponentially rising environmental problems
LFG Landfill gas (Haile 2014; Sharma et al. 2014; Ripa et al. 2017) and the
MSW Municipal solid waste urgent need to renewable energy resources (Abomohra et al.
PPP Public-private partnership 2016; Elsayed et al. 2018). During the last few decades, mu-
nicipal solid waste (MSW) production has been sharply in-
creased in urban centers of developing countries (Williams

Parveen Fatemeh Rupani and Reza Maleki Delarestaghi contributed

equally to this work.
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

* Hany S. EL-Mesery 3
Department of mechanical Engineering, Sharif University,
hanyel_mesery@yahoo.com Tehran, Iran
* Weilan Shao 4
MJIIT, University Technology Malaysia (UTM), Kuala
weilanshao@foxmail.com Lumpur, Malaysia
5
1
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University,
School of Environment and safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China 6
Department of Crop Handling and Processing, Agricultural
2
Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Tehran, Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki,
Tehran, Iran Giza 12618, Egypt

et al. 2012). MSW is generally defined as the waste collected
from the municipalities or other local organizations that in-
clude household wastes, yard wastes, and commercial/
industrial wastes, which in general come from homes, hospi-
tals, schools, and businesses (Rajaeifar et al. 2015; Ripa et al.
2017). Currently, MSW is considered one form of human
unsustainable consumption for natural resources, which led
to the environmental degradation and resource depletion
(Mohammadi et al. 2019). Different methods were globally
discussed to reduce the amount of waste needed to be dis-
posed, such as waste reduction at the source, mechanical treat-
ment, biological treatment, composting, landfilling, incinera-
tion, and pyrolysis (Zaman 2010; Uzoejinwa et al. 2018;
Chhabra et al. 2019).
Iran has one of the largest economies in the Middle East
region (The World Bank 2017), and it is the 18th global largest
by gross domestic product (GDP, IMF 2019). Therefore, the
country faces several environmental problems due to the fast
development of urbanization and industrialization. The rate of
urbanization in Iran increased rapidly from 46% in 1976 to
66% in 2001 and 74% in 2014, which is 45% higher than the
global average rate (United Nations 2011). Although urbani-
zation by its own has no negative influence on the environ-
ment, the lack of effective waste management approach could
cause negative environmental impacts, which is one of the
main hitches encountered by the country in the last decade.
The main method for the final waste disposal is the use of
landfill, which is mostly carried out not in compliance with
the environmental regulations, and is largely dumped down in
open areas (Moghadam et al. 2009; Ramachandra et al. 2018).
In addition, the waste materials are no longer worthy due to
the lack of proper management of recoverable wastes (Rafiee
et al. 2018). According to Iran’s waste management law
(National Legislation 2004), the definition of MSW includes
two main groups. The first group is “ordinary wastes” which
include wastes generated commonly from humans’ life activ-
ities inside and outside cities and villages such as household
and demolition wastes. The second group is “hospital wastes”
which consist of infected and harmful wastes generated by
hospitals, health cares, treatment facilities, medical laborato-
ries, research centers, and other similar organizations.
Out of 31 provinces, 1154 cities, and 6800 villages in Iran,
Table 1 summarizes the properties of the seven megacities in
terms of population, elevation above the sea level, climate,
and precipitation. According to the latest statistics, the popu-
lation growth rate is 1.24%, among which 74% of population
live in cities, while only 26% live in the villages (Statistical
Center of Iran 2017). The seven studied metropolitan cities
constitute about 35% of Iran’s population and produce about
30–40% of Iran’s total wastes.
In order to develop a waste management plan, full infor-
mation on the constituents of the waste as well as the produc-
tion rate are inevitable to minimize the waste production
Environ Sci Pollut Res
(Dhokhikah and Trihadiningrum 2012). Such information
not only play a vital role in minimizing the waste production
but also play a key role to design the efficient routes for waste
management process, including storage, collection, transpor-
tation, processing/disposal, and/or conversion (Liu et al. 2015;
Almasi et al. 2019). In developed countries, related organiza-
tions collect reliable data on daily production of urban wastes
in order to implement the proper management based on a
logical model of planning. However, in developing countries,
such as Iran, there is a serious lack of information and avail-
able data on urban waste production, which is not consistent
nor sufficient to formulate a comprehensive and effective pro-
gram (Farzadkia et al. 2017). To the best of authors’ knowl-
edge, there are few review articles available on some of the
small cities of Iran, but till date there is no comprehensive
review available to fill the gap and discuss the available data
and different strategies of solid waste management in mega-
cities of Iran. Taking these big cities as an example could be an
appropriate way to consider it as a role model for any cities
which resembled the scenario by recognizing its problems
towards effective management and reducing the environmen-
tal impacts. Hence, the research provided here summarizes the
type and amount of MSW composition in the 7 studied met-
ropolitan cities in Iran. In addition, the study focuses on the
current methods used for MSW management in the country.
Moreover, it provides the future perspectives for economic
utilization of MSW with a focus on different pathways of
energy production. In this study, Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan,
Tabriz, Karaj, Shiraz, and Ahvaz were chosen as a model of a
developing society in the country.
Municipal solid wastes
Production of municipal solid wastes
Urban development factors significantly influence the produc-
tion rate and composition of municipal wastes, such as life-
style, socioeconomic, cultural conditions, industry, consump-
tion patterns, climate, population, food habits, city size, and
living standards (Keser et al. 2012; Kolekar et al. 2016). In this
context, lifestyle is directly related to the household income
level and can affect the amount and patterns of consumption
(Khan et al. 2016) which, consequently, affect the rate and
type of wastes generated in different countries. Previous stud-
ies confirmed that by increasing the incomes, household con-
sumption also increases, which results in more waste genera-
tion (Afroz et al. 2011; Estay-Ossandon and Mena-Nieto
2018). Table 2 shows per capita waste production in Iran com-
paring it with few other Asian countries. According to the
available data, there is a direct relationship between the
amount of waste produced and the per capita income of house-
holds. Among the represented countries, Bahrain showed
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 1 Population and characteristics of the seven Iranian megacities (IRIMO 2016)

Cities* Urban population (× 1000 person) Elevation (meter) Climate Precipitation (mm year−1)

Ahvaz 1184 17 Hot, desert 230

Isfahan 1961 1574 Cold, desert 113
Karaj 1592 1300 Cold, semi-arid 243.8
Mashhad 3001 985 Cold, semi-arid 212
Shiraz 1565 1480 Hot, semi-arid 337.8
Tabriz 1558 1351 Cold, semi-arid 310
Tehran 8693 1190 Hot Mediterranean 233

*Cities are arranged aphoristically

relatively low per income with the highest per capita.
However, average per capita waste production in Iran was
782 g per day, which is within the global average, but there
is a huge gap between the amount of municipal waste produc-
tion and how it is managed in the country. According to the
report of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Organization as well as the urban population, waste produc-
tion in the country during the period of 2002–2017 increased
by about 62%. From 2002 to 2014, the waste production
showed a sharp increase by 33.4%, which was mainly attrib-
uted to the increase in urban population. The highest waste
production per capita in this period refers to 2007 with 0.89 kg
person−1 day−1. The process of population change, per capita
production of wastes, and the total waste production in Iran
from 2002 to 2017 is shown in Fig. 1. The total waste produc-
tion in 2017 showed 62.5, 46.7, and 62.5% increase over that
of 2002, 2007, and 2014, respectively.
Iran could be a model country in the region for having
different levels of development in each city and different cli-
mate zones. For this reason, the rate of municipal waste pro-
duction per person varies from city to city. Unfortunately,
there is no accurate statistics available from municipalities or
waste management organizations of Iran and the available
information is based on the individual research studies by
scholars. Waste management of Gorgan (Moharamnejad
et al., 2011), Esfahan (Esfandiari et al. 2010), Khorramabad
(Jafari et al. 2010), Mashhad (MWMO 2012), Tabriz (Zazouli
et al. 2013), Zanjan (Fathi et al. 2014), Tehran (TWMO 2017),

Table 2 Per capita waste generation in some countries in comparison with Iran

Countries Per capita (g day−1) Per Income (GDP per capita)* Reference

Iran 782 5415.2 (SATBA 2018)

Jordan – 4129.8 –
Georgia – 4078.3 –
Azerbaijan – 4131.6 –
Serbia 280 5900.0 (Vujić et al. 2010)
Philippines 382 2989.0 (Guerrero et al. 2013)
Ghana 400 1641.5 (Achankeng 2003)
Tunisia 500 3490.8 (Achankeng 2003)
Sri Lanka 590 4065.2 (Khajuria et al. 2010)
Pakistan 610 1547.9 (Khajuria et al. 2010)
Indonesia 697 3846.9 (Guerrero et al. 2013)
Morocco 760 3007.2 (Ouigmane et al. 2018)
Oman 970 15,668.4 (Palanivel and Sulaiman 2014)
Saudi Arabia 1052 20,760.9 (Zafar 2018)
Kuwait 1176 29,040.4 (Zafar 2018)
UAE 1274 40,698.8 (Zafar 2018)
Turkey 1500 10,540.6 (Turan et al. 2009)
Qatar 2437 63,505.8 (Zafar 2018)
Bahrain 2722 23,655 (Zafar 2018)

*Source: The World Bank (2017)

 Environ Sci Pollut Res

70 1.5
Urban populaon Total MSW generaon Per Capita generaon
studied megacities in Iran, which represent 33.0% and 34% of
33.4 1.3
Total MSW generaon (million ton)
60
25.2 urban population and total national waste production, respec-

Per Capita (kg person-1 d-1)

Urban populaon (miliion)

50
1.1 tively. Among these cities, Tehran showed the highest per
0.2
39.1 0.9 capita waste production. Apart from Tehran as a capital city
40
17.2 21.9
0.7
of Iran, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad face remarkable
30 growth in waste production (Rezazadeh et al. 2014).
0.5
20 46.7 62.5
39.4 0.3
Ordinary wastes
10 0.1

0 -0.1 The income level of the country is usually considered a good

2002 2007
Years
Fig. 1 Urban population, total municipal solid waste (MSW) generation,
and per capita generation during 2002 to 2017. Numbers opposite to each
value represent % increase over those of 2002
and Shiraz (Norouzian Baghani et al. 2017) were previously
studied. In addition, several factors affect the waste generation
in different regions; for example, the amount of waste pro-
duced in the northern provinces of Iran, as one of the main
tourist attractions point near to the coastal area, is higher than
other parts of the country. According to Rezazadeh et al.
(2014), the amount of wastes produced in Gilan was 1700 g
per person per day in 2014, while in Mazandaran Province
was 1100 g per person per day (Rezazadeh et al. 2014).
However, the amount of generated wastes is much lower in
the provinces located at the central part of Iran. For example, it
was estimated as 638 g per person per day in Kashan
(Moharamnejad et al. 2011), while 293 g per person per day
was estimated in Yazd Province (Vahidi et al. 2017).
Moreover, Talaiekhozani et al. (2018) reported that the
amount of waste generated in Shahr-e-Kord was 411 g per
person per day, while Zahedan produced 800 g per person
per day (Najafi et al. 2017). Another factor affecting the waste
generation could be the changes in the climate of the region.
Usually, the amount of wastes produced in summer is higher
than other seasons of the year due to the fast spoilage during
the hot summer climate (Zazouli et al. 2013). Table 3 shows
the amount of municipal solid waste generated in the seven
2014 2017
indicator of countries’ economic development level, which
proportionally affects the amount of ordinary wastes generat-
ed. In general, the constituents of the organic matter in the
wastes are higher in countries with lower income level
(Hoornweg 2012). In particular, if the amount of economic
prosperity and urbanization increases, the production of inor-
ganic materials increases, which reduces the amount of organ-
ic matter in the waste stream (SATBA 2018). Table 4 shows
the composition of solid wastes in the studied megacities of
Iran. Organic wastes in the studied megacities showed the
predominance, which ranged between 61.1 and 73.4% of total
wastes generated. Karaj and Mashhad showed the highest or-
ganic waste generation (about 73% of total wastes), while
Shiraz showed the lowest value of 61.1%. Plastic wastes
showed higher amounts in Shiraz and Isfahan (9.8 and 9.4%,
respectively), which could be attributed as being tourist-
attractive cities. Similarly, high percentages of hazardous
wastes and cardboard wastes were recorded for Shiraz and
Isfahan. However, Tehran as a capital city of Iran having
higher urban population does not show any specific pattern.
Hospital wastes
Hospital wastes generally consist of toxic and pathogenic
agents such as radioactive, medicinal, chemical, and bio-
logical infectious materials. Currently, hospital wastes lead
to land depletion and other serious environmental prob-
lems in the country as well as globally. Thus, proper

Table 3 Waste composition in

Iranian metropolises (Source: Cities* Population MSWG (tons GPC (g Population MSWG
IMO 2018) (×1000) day−1) person−1 day−1) (%) (%)

Ahvaz 1184 852 720 2.00 1.84

Isfahan 1961 1559 795 3.32 3.37
Karaj 1592 1297 815 2.69 2.80
Mashhad 3001 2233 744 5.07 4.83
Shiraz 1565 1177 752 2.65 2.54
Tabriz 1558 1220 783 2.63 2.75
Tehran 8693 7476 860 14.70 16.16
Total in 59,154 46,258 782 100 100
Iran

*Cities are arranged alphabetically. MSWG municipal solid waste generation, GPC generation per capita
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 4 Percentage of different wastes with respect to the total municipal solid waste production in the seven studied megacities (modified from
Rajaeifar et al. 2017)

City Waste composition and breakdowns (% of total) TW (tons

day−1)
Organic Plastic Pet Glass Textile Ferrous Non-ferrous Paper/ Hazardous Wood Leather Others
metals metals cardboard

Ahvaz 64.9 5.3 1.0 3.6 3.4 4.1 0.2 8.2 0.4 3.6 0.6 4.7 852
Isfahan 69.4 9.4 1.1 2.4 4.8 1.4 0.1 6.6 0.5 1.7 1.1 1.5 1559
Karaj 73.4 4.8 1.2 1.4 3.9 1.9 0.4 4.9 0.3 1.8 1.6 4.4 1297
Mashhad 73.1 5.3 0.4 1.2 5.7 1.5 0.2 8.6 0.5 0.6 1.4 1.5 2233
Shiraz 61.1 9.8 1.4 1.0 2.6 2.3 1.0 15.1 0.6 1.9 1.5 1.7 1177
Tabriz 71.9 5.9 0.6 1.2 4.4 0.6 0.2 4.8 0.3 3.9 1.8 4.4 1220
Tehran 71.2 5.9 1.3 1.6 3.6 2.1 0.4 9.6 0.3 1.8 0.6 1.6 7476
ICA 70.23 6.33 1.08 1.81 3.55 1.56 0.17 9.13 0.35 1.53 1.09 3.17 2259

TW total wastes of the corresponding city, ICA Iran’s city average

management of these wastes should be among the neces-
sary plans of each country. Accurate information about the
amount of wastes produced and the methods used for the
treatment and/or disposal in hospitals are of great impor-
tance (Mahdavi et al. 2008). According to Farzadkia et al.
(2017) and Komilis et al. (2017), 75–90% of wastes pro-
duced in hospitals are considered general wastes, while
10–25% can be classified as dangerous hospital wastes.
One of the main problems associated with the management
of hospital wastes is the segregating of general wastes from
the dangerous ones during storage and collection, resulting
in problems with the final disposal method (Sabour et al.
2007; Chaerul et al. 2008). So far, there is no accurate
management policy adopted in the country for effective
disposal of hospital wastes. Askarian et al. (2004) conduct-
ed a study on 15 private hospitals in Fars Province and
confirmed that 4.45 kg per bed per day of wastes produced
daily, of which 71.4% was normal wastes, 27.8% was path-
ogenic wastes, and 0.76% was sharp wastes. In 2012, the
generation rate of hospital wastes in Karaj was estimated to
be 2.78 kg per bed per day, of which about 91% were in the
group of normal wastes and 9% as infectious wastes
Waste management in Iran
The history of waste management in Iran dates back to
1911, when the first municipality was established in the
country (Maczulak 2010). According to the Iran’s Waste
Management Law adopted in 2004, municipalities are re-
sponsible for collecting, transporting, and disposing the
urban wastes. In addition, the law describes how to man-
age the hospital and industrial wastes separately (National
Legislation 2004). Monitoring the waste management pro-
cess is the responsibility of the Department of
Environment. Figure 3 summarizes the different routes
of the main solid waste management in the country.
According to the available county law, hospitals are re-
sponsible for the management of generated hospital
wastes and will be allowed to collect these wastes only
if they are disinfected by safe making devices. In addi-
tion, there are few laws in the country stated regarding the
reimbursement of waste management costs but socio-
3.1, 16%
3.48, 18%

(Ferdowsi et al. 2012). In a review conducted by 1.59, 8%

Gholamheidar et al. (2014), the hospital wastes per bed 2.71, 14%
per day were 2.76 kg in Sistan and Baluchistan, and 2.31, 12%
2.40 kg in Zanjan. Figure 2 shows the hospital waste pro-
duction in the studied 7 Iranian large cities. Shiraz showed 1.67, 9%
4.45, 23%
the highest hospital waste generation, while Isfahan and
Mashhad showed the lowest amount, which could be at-
tributed to the applied system for hospital waste collection
and controlled data report of exact production as well as
Ahvaz Isfahan Karaj Mashhad Shiraz Tehran Tabriz
Shiraz as one of the main tourist hubs of the country. In
addition, the size of the hospital and its functionality affect Fig. 2 The rate of hospital waste generation in Iran (as kg wastes
significantly in the process of the waste generation. bed−1 day−1)
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 3 Different routes of solid waste management in Iran

economic barriers do not allow these funds to be received
by the relevant organs. In general, the recycling systems
have been included in most of the metropolitan disposal
sites, with landfill usage and biogas production in all lo-
cations (Fig. 4).
Ordinary waste management
Most of the metropolitan cities of Iran have fixed dumping
areas with certain distance from the cities, in which processing
and disposal are commonly performed in the same place.

Fig. 4 Waste management methods applied in Iranian metropolises (modified from SATBA 2018)
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Figure 5 represents the efficiency of waste management
methods in the studied 7 metropolitan cities. Although landfill
is the most common waste management method in all studied
cities, it is not carried out in a sanitary way, which causes
environmental pollutions such as waste water, soil depletion,
and air pollution. Out of 83% of wastes which enter the land-
fills, only 10.5% enter the composting process and 5.9%
recycled (Mir and Nabavi 2015). Therefore, composting can
be observed only in three of the studied cities, Mashhad,
Tehran, and Shiraz (see Fig. 4).
During the landfilling process, different gases will be pro-
duced because of the anaerobic processes of the wastes.
Typically, landfill gas (LFG) consists of 50–60% methane
and 30–40% carbon dioxide as well as trace amounts of nu-
merous chemical compounds such as aromatics, chlorinated
organic compounds, and sulfur compounds (Faitli et al. 2015).
Due to the high percentage of organic matter in the waste,
there is high potential for gas production from the landfills
of Iranian cites (Mollahosseini et al. 2017). In this regard, all
studied cities installed biogas facilities, while still many of the
existing landfills around the country are not equipped with
biogas systems. Currently, two units of biogas plants have
been the first power generating from landfill units in the
Middle East (Maghanaki et al. 2013). Shiraz biogas power
plant uses the gas produced from Shiraz landfill and converts
it into electricity. The capacity of this plant is 1060 kwh, and it
can convert more than 4 million cubic meters of biogas to
electricity and ultimately produces up to 8 million kwh of
electricity annually (Maghanaki et al. 2013). Shiraz’s landfill
has approximately produced more than 300 million cubic me-
ters of biogas during 25 years of anaerobic burial process
(Maghanaki et al. 2013). Another example is Mashhad City
which has a biogas unit capacity of 650 kwh built on the old
landfill site. The unit has a generating capacity of 4 million
kwh for 13 years, and more than 2 million cubic meters enters
Fig. 5 The share of waste
management methods in the
studied metropolitan cities in Iran
Managed wastes (tons day-1)
the unit annually. It is anticipated that this unit in Mashhad
will prevent 20,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
from entering into the atmosphere annually. Recently, in the
4th district of Tehran, which produces about 12% of Tehran’s
urban wastes, an anaerobic digestion plant has been construct-
ed. Moreover, in near future Renewable Energy Organization
of the country are planning to construct 10 MW power station
which will be based on the MSW biogas utilization obtained
from cities with over 250,000 population (Hosseini et al.
2013).
Hospital waste management
In developing and transitional countries like Iran, hospital
wastes have not received enough attention, despite their neg-
ative impact on the environment. Until 2007, hospital wastes
were disposed along with the domestic wastes, which created
sever health problems for the workers on site and environmen-
tal depletion (Karamouz et al. 2007). However, according to
the Article 13 of the Waste Management Law of Iran, mixing
the medical wastes with other wastes, discharge of un-
sanitized wastes into the environment, and recycling of the
infected materials are prohibited (National Legislation
2004). From 2007, all hospitals and healthcare centers were
obliged to install waste incinerators. Despite these advances, a
report from Khuzestan Province (located in the southern part
of Iran) suggested that improper solid waste storage, packing,
and transportation are the main reasons for the mismanage-
ment of the hospital wastes, rather than not being highly
equipped with different facilities (Karamouz et al. 2007).
According to Davoodi et al. (2014), about 75% of hospitals
have enough facilities to enforce this law because many hos-
pitals in the country are equipped with proper autoclaves and/
or incinerator systems and there are separate burial grounds
for hospital wastes. However, due to lack of manpower, lack
18000
MSW recycled MSW Composted MSW combuson MSW landfilled
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Ahvaz Isfahan Karaj Mashhad Shiraz Tabriz Tehran Iran
Cies

of health care awareness, and in some cases limited volume
incinerators are available in large hospitals, therefore, most of
the wastes are dumped in the landfill without the required
processing. In that context, Arab et al. (2017) evaluated the
practicing safety feature among Iranian public hospitals in 150
random hospitals selected. The authors indicated that only
33.3% of the hospitals are in good situation. Authors attribut-
ed that to the education, work experience, age, and workers
training with strong safety awareness. Hence, the current land-
fill practice does not meet all the requirements of sanitary
conditions.
Glitches of waste management
in the metropolitan landfills
Landfill problems
The flowrate of the leachate increases by increasing the vol-
ume of waste disposal in the landfills. As mentioned in
“Ordinary waste management,” landfill is the most common
method of waste disposal in the country, which causes contin-
uous problems in many locations. In general, there are two
major problems in Iran’s landfills: lack of proper leachate
management and lack of efficient systems for gas recovery
from the landfill. Because of high moisture content of the
waste and lack of suitable landfill coverage, there is a high
level of leachate production. During the operation of landfill
site, the penetration of rain water, moisture from wastes, and
chemical reactions lead to leachate production (Vasanthi et al.
2008). Therefore, water and ground are threatened by contam-
ination due to the lack of improper collection and management
(Zinatizadeh et al. 2017). Various types of organics, mineral
contaminants, heavy metals, and hazardous chemical pollut-
ants can be detected in the landfill site leachate. At present, the
production of leachate and its management is an environmen-
tal problem related to the proper utilization of landfills, which,
if not properly managed, can lead to serious environmental
problems such as pollution of soil, and surface and under-
ground water sources (Safari and Bidhendi 2007). As in many
parts of Iran, there are limitations in water resource supply due
to dry and semi-arid and low rainfall climated; hence, proper
management of leachate as an important source of water con-
tamination is a very essential aspect.
On the other hand, the amount of organic load in Iran is
relatively high, which is related to the lack of waste separation.
The origin of heavy metals in leachate is from their initial
amount in the waste materials. Thus, the produced leachate
in landfills lacks an engineering collection system and it is
only partly collected and the rest is penetrated into the soil
which increases the possibility of groundwater contamination.
Furthermore, the collected part of leachate does not either
Environ Sci Pollut Res
have a purification system nor a run-off facility, which causes
pollution in the downstream grounds (MWMS 2018).
Of the landfills in metropolises, almost all cities have a new
leachate management system; some of them such as Tehran
have less than 5 years age leachate management system; and,
therefore, leachate has caused many environmental problems
during the past years in that region. Another problem in land-
fills is the lack of gas extraction at the site (Komilis et al.
2017). Considering the high organic load of wastes in the
country, the potential of gas production from wastes seems
to be in a very high level (Maghanaki et al. 2013). Leakage
of gas without proper collection not only increases the GHG
emissions but also increases the risk of explosion and fire at
the landfill site (Vasanthi et al. 2008). Hosseini et al. (2013)
stated that energy recovery policy can be implemented in the
country as MSW are the excellent source of biogas
production.
Compost problems
Major metropolitan cities namely Tehran, Mashhad, and
Shiraz have composting systems, but surveys showed that
compost production in these cities is facing several problems
(Esfandiari et al. 2010). Improper process management and
the presence of inorganic substances are among the crucial
problems of current composting processes. Esfandiari et al.
(2010) reported that leachate produced in the composting
plants also has a high organic load, leading to pollution of
water resources as well. According to Abdoli et al. (2016),
Isfahan produce 60% stabilized compost quality; however,
still there is no awareness among the farmers to use the com-
post materials. Among different problems in waste collection
for composting, the most important is the improper segrega-
tion of the wastes, which results in high probability of the
glass presence in the compost. Hence, using glass-
contaminated compost is very dangerous for the farmers.
Moreover, there is no proper segregation of hazardous mate-
rials such batteries and medical wastes, which increases the
hazardous and toxic components such as Pb in the compost
results in relatively harmful compost to be used. In a recent
survey (data not included) with the farmers, they reported that
weed seeds are a potential contaminant of the composts,
which causes growth of unwanted weeds in the field. This
results in in the extra burden for the farmers to control it via
frequent usage of chemical pesticides. Currently, there is no
defined regulation of using agricultural chemical pesticides,
which results in excessive amount of chemicals in the compost
making it with low quality as well as the negative environ-
mental impacts. However, this also could be due to the im-
proper handling of the temperature while composting different
materials (Grundy et al. 1998). The environmental protection
agency of USA recommends the temperature above 55 °C for
15 days along with minimum five turnovers of the windrow
Environ Sci Pollut Res
for deriving a sanitized compost. This rule has not been de-
fined among farmers in Iran; hence, there is no awareness on
the proper composting process and its controlled temperature
awareness during composting.
Waste management approaches
Due to the changing lifestyle in Iran, the amount of recycled
materials in the waste stream is increasing. High proportion of
organic wastes could have a great potential to produce effi-
cient amount of gases from the landfills to the atmosphere. As
a result, the proposed strategies for waste management should
cover these problems. On the other hand, it should be noted
that solving the problem does not depend only on the use of
modern technologies; but other environmental, legal, econom-
ic, and cultural issues will significantly affect the management
perspectives (Estay-Ossandon and Mena-Nieto 2018). The
factors influencing the waste management in Iran can be cat-
egorized into three main groups, namely public awareness,
segregation at the source point, and recycling.
Public awareness
Increasing of living standards results in changes in composi-
tion and amount of the produced wastes. This increase in the
waste quantity production needs further awareness for the
proper management such as waste reduction and segregation.
Few cities in Iran initiated effective steps to reduce the waste
production, such as increasing the public awareness regarding
the environmental deterioration of waste production. Some of
these actions have been designed and implemented based on
3Rs (reduction, reuse, and recycling) principle (Rafiee et al.
2018). In some cities, education is being given on the ideal
methods for separation from house doors, and at the same time
there are specific centers for collecting the recyclable wastes.
This is apart from the financial benefits created, reduces the
cost of final disposal, and enhances the biological conversion
of wastes.
In situ processing
Composting is one of the best strategies of degradable waste
management, and it could reduce the food waste up to 50%
which helps to increase the landfill lifespan. However, com-
post production in Iran faces many challenges such as low
efficiency of organic waste collection systems, lack of strin-
gent regulations to monitor the final products, insufficient ac-
ceptance by consumers as for the use of compost, and lack of
proper management of composting process (Mahdavi et al.
2008). In almost all developing countries, compost production
is applied mainly in a domestic scale, rather than industrial
scale. The use of in situ composting reduces the volume and
weight of the produced wastes, and ultimately reduces the cost
of transport and disposal. In addition, application of in situ
composting reduces the rate of leachate production and sig-
nificantly reduces the cost of leachate management (Nithikul
et al. 2011; Beylot et al. 2015). After composting, the compost
can be used by farmers as a fertilizer with additional profit
(Taheri et al. 2014). However, the production of a decent com-
post requires the use of appropriate composting methods
(Cesaro et al. 2015). In the process of domestic waste
composting, the amount of the produced GHGs is lower than
that of fertilizer industry (Rasapoor et al. 2016). Concerns
have been made regarding the final product of compost which
requires a pre-processing and separation due to the physical,
chemical, and biological contaminants such as glass, plastic,
heavy metals, pathogenic microbes which limits its applica-
tion (Farrell and Jones 2009).
Recycling
Recycling process prevents from the loss of natural resources
and reduces the consumption of raw materials and energy,
which actually reduces the GHG emissions. However, choos-
ing the proper recycling process is also important, as the en-
ergy consumption from the recycling process could also add
into the production of GHGs. The production of pollutants in
the recycling process is much less than raw materials (Tonjes
and Mallikarjun 2013). For instance, the use of recycled paper
reduces air pollution by 75%, reduces energy consumption by
50%, and reduces water consumption by 90% compared with
paper production from raw materials (Craighill and Powell
1996). One of the solutions to decrease the flow rate and the
concentration of organic materials of the leachate is dry-wet
waste separation, because the leachate produced from wet
wastes can dissolve dry wastes like paper which increases
the chemical oxygen demand. In fact, by having a proper
recycling process, many of the problems created in the final
disposal process can be prevented.
Although most of the urban wastes are recyclable mate-
rials, a significant portion of these materials are currently
landfilled (Rajaeifar et al. 2015). The success rate of recycling
programs is highly dependent on the extent to which citizens
participate in the separation of wastes from the production
source (Krook and Eklund 2010). Mahdavi et al. (2008) re-
ported that only 5% of Tehran’s wastes was recycled, which is
a sign of weakness in separation and recycling systems .In
order to recycle at the origin, one of the solutions is to legislate
in this area and to have the enforcement of the relevant laws
and regulations. For example, laws should be codified in a
way that people be obliged to only hand over corruptible
wastes to the municipalities for daily collection. Another
way is to encourage people to separate recyclable materials
and corruptible materials from the origin for delivery to mu-
nicipal services. Thus, the best way to recycle urban wastes is

to change the attitudes and increase people’s awareness
through education. Obviously, raising the level of people’s
awareness and achieving a positive attitude to the issue of
recycling will lead to their full participation, which can ensure
the success of the plan.
Future perspectives for energy production
Iran is among the countries with the largest reserves of oil and
gas in the world, which is why the cost of energy supply in the
country is low. Apart from current technical problems to sup-
ply the equipment needed to extract energy from the wastes,
the nature and composition of the unsorted wastes resulted in
problems with the use of waste conversion systems to energy.
If waste separation systems are used in metropolises with
proper efficiency as discussed in “Waste management ap-
proaches,” then using conversion methods would be an opti-
mistic option. Although incineration is considered a suitable
method for disposal of urban wastes, but in Iran there are some
obstacles due to the high organic load in waste stream and low
thermal value of the waste. The next problem in this section is
the lack of skilled labor force for management of the system
(Mahdavi et al. 2008). Regarding the existing rules in the
country and not receiving the gate fee, applying the incinera-
tion method is not affordable whatsoever (Rezaei et al. 2018).
Waste-to-energy is a novel approach of waste management
which is getting much attention recently.
In Iran, about 800 g of waste per day is generated per
person, and according to the population of Iran in 2017 (80
million people) about 55–65 ×103 tons of waste per day are
produced. It should be taken into consideration that the deg-
radation of organic material in a landfill emits methane, which
is a more potent GHG than CO2 (Sundqvist 1999) and, unlike
biogenic CO2, the collection and use of this biogas can benefit
waste-disposal facilities economically (Hums et al. 2016).
Figure 6 shows the different possible suggested routes of
Fig. 6 The suggested pathways
for optimized closed-cycle con-
version pathways of wastes to
energy
Environ Sci Pollut Res
energy production from the urban wastes in Tehran as an
example. After separation of metals and glass, all other wastes
can be converted by thermochemical conversion, using pyrol-
ysis as example (Chhabra et al. 2019), into crude bio-oil and
syngas. This pathway is a favorable pathway for hospital
wastes instead of using incineration, which could produce
energy while sterilizing the wastes. After anaerobic digestion
of organic waste, the produced digestate as a by-product of the
process can be used as a soil fertilizer or further converted by
pyrolysis to crude bio-oil. In recent years, studies have been
done on the potential of using biogas in Iran (Pazoki et al.
2015; Najafi et al. 2017). In the energy from waste sector,
extraction of gas from existing landfills can be applicable. In
Mashhad the extraction of gas from the city’s old landfill has
begun as of 2009. Almost all metropolises of the country have
the capacity to produce gas from old landfills. On the other
hand, the use of low-quality compost can be used as input
material for incineration or converted to crude bio-oil by ther-
mochemical conversion methods. Moreover, lipid-rich kitch-
en wastes containing fat, oil, and grease (FOG) can be used
efficiently for biodiesel production due to its high theoretical
energy yield (Dehghani et al. 2014).
FOG consumption per capita in developing countries was
estimated as 20 kg per annum (Williams et al. 2012). FOG,
with other non-flushable wastes such as sanitary items and wet
wipes, can accumulate in the sewer, producing what the media
commonly mention “fatbergs” (Wallace et al. 2017).
According to Oxford Dictionaries, it is defined as “a very large
mass of solid waste in a sewerage system, consisting especial-
ly of congealed fat and personal hygiene products that have
been flushed down toilets”. Fatbergs and FOG deposits have
many issues which can range from flooding of the living
property with sewage to city wide problems (He et al. 2013).
Wallace et al. (2017) reported that conversion of cooking oil
into biodiesel has the lowest GHG emissions among other
biofuels. Transesterification of oil is the common chemical
reaction used for biodiesel production which results in
Environ Sci Pollut Res
glycerol as a byproduct. The glycerol produced can be utilized
for many other purposes such as cosmetics and biopolymer
production, or can be converted by pyrolysis to crude bio-oil.
Conclusion
The key factors contributing to an efficient solid waste man-
agement strategy are awareness, environment friendliness,
cost effectiveness, and satisfaction level to the community.
These factors are in conjunction with several other factors
such as environmental, economic, and governmental policy
aspects. Major constraint to efficient MSW management is
the lack of up to date information and resources for the plan-
ning of waste treatment infrastructure and leadership to make
projections and estimations for the future generation. Still
there is a gap between the policy and implementation of it in
Iran; hence, it is crucial for the stakeholders to adhere to the
regulations to ensure an efficient MSW management system
will be handled. In this regard, public-private partnership
(PPP) seems to be the solution to tackle the issues for
Iranian MSW management as municipalities are unable to
achieve the targets of management of municipal solid wastes.
The method can compensate the costs by using waste-energy
methods and supportive legislation rules to buy the reusable
and recyclable wastes. Also, necessary educational programs
for the on-site labors and related managers will help them to
well understand the knowledge of the waste and its character-
istics, hence, effectively promote the waste collection strategy.
Acknowledgments The authors appreciate the effort of Professor Abd El-
Fatah Abomohra (New Energy Department, School of Energy and Power
Engineering, Jiangsu University) for his guidance and advice on this
manuscript.
Funding information The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no.
30970062; 31770089).
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