Abstract
According to EU regulations, member states shall take measures to encourage the recycling of biowaste in a way that fulfils a high level of environmental protection. In Spain, the separate collection of biowaste is only implemented in some regions. For this reason, a pilot scheme based on an information campaign and the location of a specific brown container for biowaste in specific zones of the city was carried out in Castelló de la Plana (Spain) over a period of six months. In this period, the collection and composition of the biowaste was monitored in depth with the goal of determining the evolution of the efficiency of the new collection system over time. In the zones, the quality rate in the biowaste container increased as the pilot study progressed, finally reaching 90%. The rate of biowaste separation also increased in the three zones over time, although in different ways, which means that there is greater collaboration on the part of citizens. On the other hand, an analysis of the rate of net biowaste daily collection from zones 2 and 3 has shown that their value increases as the rate of containerization of biowaste decreases. Therefore, to obtain better results it will be necessary to increase the containerization of biowaste, that is, to reduce the distance from the citizen to the container. It can thus be said that there is a positive evolution of the experience, which boosts confidence when it comes to implementing the system throughout the city.
Highlights
Abbreviations bw Biowaste containerization rate (CR) Containerization rate daily collection rate (DCR) Daily collection rate EU European Union gbw Gross biowaste mx Mixed waste nbw Net biowaste net separation rate (NSR) Net separation rate quality in container rate (QCR) Quality in container rate SR Separation rate st. dev
To calculate the minimum number of samples needed to determine the composition of biowaste and mixed waste in the containers, the chosen confidence level was 95%, so the value tα;n−1 = 1.960
One of the objectives of the study was to determine the variation in the composition of the biowaste container over the duration of the experiment, so it was decided to increase the number of samples and characterize 22 samples in Zone 1, 27 samples in Zone 2 and 25 samples in Zone 3
Summary
Abbreviations bw Biowaste CR Containerization rate DCR Daily collection rate EU European Union gbw Gross biowaste mx Mixed waste nbw Net biowaste NSR Net separation rate QCR Quality in container rate SR Separation rate st. dev. Important benefits would be obtained such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, generation of biogas and production of good quality compost. This will contribute to the improvement of the quality of the soil, the use and efficiency of resources and energy self-sufficiency[3]. The main threat of the mismanagement of the biowaste is the production of methane by anaerobic fermentation in landfills. These emissions accounted for 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-15 in 1995. Works carried out in Catalonia (Spain) with the life cycle assessment demonstrated that the worst option for biowaste management is the traditional landfill[7]
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