Influence of the income factor in the municipal solid waste selective collection

Abstract

There are several factors, such as physical, geographical, socio-cultural, economic and political factors, which have an influence in the selective collection of the municipal solid waste (MSW). To define a selective collection system of MSW the waste generation pattern of the town should be firstly determined. In this way, the before mentioned factors need to be analysed in depth. This paper tries to analyse specifically the economic income level in order to determine actions to improve the waste management plan of a town. This research work includes three stages. In the first stage, waste samples of the light-packaging containers were collected in two zones of the town with different economic characteristics. The samples were collected in different seasons during one year to detect possible variations in the composition of the waste. In the second stage, the samples were characterized at the laboratory to define the composition and quality of the waste. It was firstly separated into four fractions: metals, plastic, brik and inappropriate. The inappropriate fraction was in its turn separated into cardboard, rubber and leather, inert waste, organic matter, paper, hazardous waste, clothes and shoes, glass and others. The plastic fraction was also separated into five type of plastics and the metal fraction into three. Finally, in the third stage, the data have been analyzed and conclusions have been extracted. One of the main results is that the zone with a higher income collects selectively more quantity of paper and cardboard and light-packaging with the same logistic and information conditions. Another conclusion was that the quality of the waste collected in these zones was similar. The methodology exposed in this work can be extrapolated to other towns with similar characteristics. Otherwise, it will be useful when implementing a system to collect the waste selectively and especially to develop actions to achieve a good participation of everybody in the waste collection system.