Balancing environmental and economic objectives in sustainable sharing of waste-to-energy facilities: A cooperative game approach for multi-regional integration scenario

Multi-regional integration promotes the rapid development of urban agglomeration. For local governments, there is an urgent need to plan and construct a series of waste treatment facilities, especially waste incineration plants, which play a critical role in waste reduction and energy supply in China. However, due to environmental pollution and huge economic costs, such facilities often face strong opposition from the public. This work constructs a dual-objective game theory model, involving land values, carbon emissions, facility construction and operating costs, which are integrated to form benefit distribution models and coordination strategies for co-construction and co-utilization of Waste-to-Energy facilities in a multi-regional scenario, with an integration office as the leader and three local governments as followers. The dual-objective game theory model was used to evaluate nine potential scenarios for Waste-to-Energy facilities in the Pilot Zone of the Yangtze River Delta region in China. The results show that an optimal scenario can achieve a dual balance of economic and environmental goals. Furthermore, establishing a fair and reasonable transfer payment framework facilitates the reallocation of benefits among local governments. The integration office plays a critical role in assisting local governments to accept the optimal facility site plan when the total benefit for local governments is maximized. This work proposes policy recommendations to support the development of Waste-to-Energy facilities in multi-regional integration.