Environmental impact assessment of compost plant (A case study: Baghdad City, Iraq)

Composting is one of the urban waste management techniques that aims to lessen the amount and weight of trash that needs to be removed, as well as the spread of flue and fat, resource recycling, and disposal costs. Composting facilities must have an environmental impact assessment (EIA) strategy in place in order to adhere to environmental laws and regulations within the context of the adaption of an environmental development plan. The environmental evaluation of the Baghdad composting plant was therefore utilized Leopold s modified matrix and checklist methodologies. At the outset of this study, the local ecosystem was examined. The effects of constructing the Baghdad compost plant on the environmental components were examined by dividing the construction and operation phases and selecting evaluation alternatives based on the properties and types of pollutants anticipated for the aforementioned facility. The three immediate, direct, and indirect effects, and the three-time intervals—short, medium, and long term—were all examined in this study. In this study, the Leopold matrix was expanded into a four-part matrix and evaluated separately from the importance and range of impacts in addition to taking into account how long the effects will last in the environment. The findings and accomplishments of this study have been examined and given in two options: project implementation without environmental considerations and project implementation with the use of techniques to lessen negative effects by separating the construction from the operational phases. The project s implementation was deemed unacceptable based on the predicted effects of the non-implementation option (-303). After minimizing the negative impacts, the implementation option was approved, producing the desired outcome (421).