Publications
Publications
- June 2012
- HBS Case Collection
Harvest: Organic Waste Recycling with Energy Recovery (TN) (A) and (B)
By: Deishin Lee
Abstract
This case describes the waste management industry and a clean technology solution for landfill diversion and renewable energy production. The (A) case focuses on the operational characteristics of organic waste recycling with energy recovery, and the characteristics of the waste management industry. The intent of the (A) case is to have students perform operational analysis on the organic waste to energy process to evaluate whether a potential new plant is economically feasible and attractive. The (B) case focuses on the sourcing dilemma: pre-processing vs. source separation. To ensure that the organic waste input is of sufficiently high quality (i.e., low level of inorganic contaminants), the company can either build a pre-processing facility to sort incoming waste to filter out contaminants, or work with suppliers to source separate their waste stream.
Keywords
Sustainability; Waste Management; Sourcing; Operations Management; Environment; Wastes and Waste Processing; Renewable Energy; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Utilities Industry; Manufacturing Industry
Citation
Lee, Deishin. "Harvest: Organic Waste Recycling with Energy Recovery (TN) (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 612-107, June 2012.