Municipal solid waste management: Identification and analysis of engineering indexes representing demand and costs generated in virtuous Italian communities

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2013.06.003

Waste Management

Volume 33, Issue 11, November 2013, Pages 2532-2540

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2013.06.003 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Collection and analysis of real life data in the field of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation and costs for management.
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Study of 92 virtuous Italian communities.
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Elaboration of trends of engineering indexes useful during design and evaluation of MSWM systems.

Abstract

The definition and utilisation of engineering indexes in the field of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is an issue of interest for technicians and scientists, which is widely discussed in literature. Specifically, the availability of consolidated engineering indexes is useful when new waste collection services are designed, along with when their performance is evaluated after a warm-up period. However, most published works in the field of MSWM complete their study with an analysis of isolated case studies. Conversely, decision makers require tools for information collection and exchange in order to trace the trends of these engineering indexes in large experiments. In this paper, common engineering indexes are presented and their values analysed in virtuous Italian communities, with the aim of contributing to the creation of a useful database whose data could be used during experiments, by indicating examples of MSWM demand profiles and the costs required to manage them.

Section snippets

Introduction and literature review

In municipalities MSWM is seen first of all in the execution of waste collection, with the purpose of collecting waste from its origin and transporting it to treatment points. Points of origin may coincide with domestic or industrial users. When domestic users are served, the problem is usually called MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) collection. Domestic users typically produce a low amount of waste and a low degree of dangerous waste (Parfitt et al., 2001). On the other hand, industrial waste

Engineering indexes selected for the study

Similarly to the work performed by Gamberini et al., 2009a, some engineering indexes are chosen for analysing relevant data in selected areas (described in Section 2.2). Whilst in Gamberini et al., 2009a, Gamberini et al., 2009b the focus is on operative conditions required during the execution of waste management services, therefore analysing indexes i.e. the average quantity of waste collected per hour of vehicle operation or the average quantity of waste collected per hour by the required

Results of data collection in selected communities and discussion

The results obtained in the analysis are presented and commented below.

Kerbside collection systems are widespread in the VR, and cover 81.52% of the analysed municipalities. As a consequence, traditional collection systems on the street are implemented by only 18.48% of the participants in the study, located in the hills or in the mountains. Otherwise, as far as the VMA is concerned, all the analysed municipalities implement kerbside collection systems.

The waste production is then analysed. In

Conclusions

The definition of engineering indexes aiding MSWM systems during the design and evaluation of performance is a topic widely discussed in literature, given the interest from technicians and the complexity of the problem requiring efforts by academics and researchers. Nevertheless, although a wide variety of published works is offered in this field, contributions evaluating the implementation of engineering indexes in a wide set of case studies are rare.

In this paper some engineering indexes are

Acknowledgments

This research has been financed with the European Commission contribute during the Project LIFE08 ENV/IT/000388 RELS – Innovative chain for energy recovery from waste in natural parks (for more details see www.life-rels.eu).

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View full text

Municipal solid waste management: Identification and analysis of engineering indexes representing demand and costs generated in virtuous Italian communities

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Introduction and literature review

Engineering indexes selected for the study

Results of data collection in selected communities and discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

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Cities

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Resour. Conserv. Recycl.

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Waste Manage.

Waste Manage. Res.

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Resour. Conserv. Recycl.

Expert Syst. Appl.

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Resour. Conserv. Recycl.

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Resour. Conserv. Recycl.