The latest targets for a correct waste management require waste reduction and recycling increase. These targets led the municipality of Trento, Italy, to modify municipal solid waste (MSW) management by switching to curbside collection. Before starting with the whole urban area, a trial phase involving two sub-areas of the town was activated (involving about 18,000 inhabitants) in order to generate data useful for the design of the overall system of collection. Personalized containers were distributed in order to organize the curbside collection system. The results showed that, comparing with the previous situation, when MSW was collected using street containers placed in the urban area, the percentage of selective collection (SC) increased from 49% to 67% and the yearly per capita production of residual MSW (RMSW) decreased from 228 to 140 kg inh-1 y-1. The composition of RMSW was extremely varied: 65% of this fraction was composed of materials which could be disposed of through the SC flows. Light packaging was 19% of RMSW. The fraction better divided were food waste, paper, glass and light packaging respectively. From the analysis of the composition of SC fractions it was observed that errors in paper, glass and food waste fractions were almost absent. Data reflected a difficulty about a correct separation of the packaging fraction, mainly due to misunderstandings of the definition of this fraction. If no errors were done during the collection, the production of RMSW(really not recyclable) would be reduced to 57 kg inh-1 y-1, corresponding to 14% of total production of urban waste. This is an ideal target as errors of separation must be taken into account from the technical point of view. The good results obtained during the trial period persuaded the local authorities to adopt this strategy in real scale.
A pilot experience of curbside collection for a correct design of a waste management system
Ragazzi, Marco;Rada, Elena Cristina
2012-01-01
Abstract
The latest targets for a correct waste management require waste reduction and recycling increase. These targets led the municipality of Trento, Italy, to modify municipal solid waste (MSW) management by switching to curbside collection. Before starting with the whole urban area, a trial phase involving two sub-areas of the town was activated (involving about 18,000 inhabitants) in order to generate data useful for the design of the overall system of collection. Personalized containers were distributed in order to organize the curbside collection system. The results showed that, comparing with the previous situation, when MSW was collected using street containers placed in the urban area, the percentage of selective collection (SC) increased from 49% to 67% and the yearly per capita production of residual MSW (RMSW) decreased from 228 to 140 kg inh-1 y-1. The composition of RMSW was extremely varied: 65% of this fraction was composed of materials which could be disposed of through the SC flows. Light packaging was 19% of RMSW. The fraction better divided were food waste, paper, glass and light packaging respectively. From the analysis of the composition of SC fractions it was observed that errors in paper, glass and food waste fractions were almost absent. Data reflected a difficulty about a correct separation of the packaging fraction, mainly due to misunderstandings of the definition of this fraction. If no errors were done during the collection, the production of RMSW(really not recyclable) would be reduced to 57 kg inh-1 y-1, corresponding to 14% of total production of urban waste. This is an ideal target as errors of separation must be taken into account from the technical point of view. The good results obtained during the trial period persuaded the local authorities to adopt this strategy in real scale.
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