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Article

Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches

1
Department of Mathematics for Economics and Business, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
2
Department of Applied Economics (Mathematics), Campus El Ejido, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
3
Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago 4860, Chile
4
Center for Sustainable Urban Development ANID/FONDAP/15110020, Santiago 4860, Chile
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10580; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410580
Received: 20 November 2020 / Revised: 11 December 2020 / Accepted: 13 December 2020 / Published: 17 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater and Water Treatment Applications)
The assessment of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) performance has gained the interest of water utilities and water regulators. Eco-efficiency has been identified as a powerful indicator, as it integrates economic and environmental variables into a single index. Most previous studies have employed traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the evaluation of WWTP eco-efficiency. However, DEA allows the selection of input and output weights for individual WWTPs for the calculation of eco-efficiency scores. To overcome this limitation, we employed the double-frontier and common set of weights methods to evaluate the eco-efficiency of a sample of 30 WWTPs in Spain. The WWTPs were ranked based on eco-efficiency scores derived under several scenarios including best- and worst-case scenarios; this approach to performance assessment is reliable and robust. Twenty-six of the 30 WWTPs were not classified as eco-efficient, even under the most favorable scenario, indicating that these facilities have substantial room for the reduction of costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The ranking of WWTPs varied according to the scenario used for evaluation, which has notable consequences when eco-efficiency scores are used for regulatory purposes. The findings of this study are relevant for water regulators and water utilities, as they demonstrate the importance of weight allocation for eco-efficiency score estimation. View Full-Text
Keywords: eco-efficiency; wastewater treatment plant; data envelopment analysis; regulation; sustainability; greenhouse gas emission eco-efficiency; wastewater treatment plant; data envelopment analysis; regulation; sustainability; greenhouse gas emission
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MDPI and ACS Style

Mocholi-Arce, M.; Gómez, T.; Molinos-Senante, M.; Sala-Garrido, R.; Caballero, R. Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches. Sustainability 2020, 12, 10580. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410580

AMA Style

Mocholi-Arce M, Gómez T, Molinos-Senante M, Sala-Garrido R, Caballero R. Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches. Sustainability. 2020; 12(24):10580. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410580

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mocholi-Arce, Manuel, Trinidad Gómez, Maria Molinos-Senante, Ramon Sala-Garrido, and Rafael Caballero. 2020. "Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches" Sustainability 12, no. 24: 10580. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410580

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