Efficient Municipal Waste Management Research Articles

I Dustbin: A Revolutionary Waste Management Solution

As urban populations continue to rise, the efficient management of municipal waste becomes increasingly imperative. Traditional waste collection systems often face challenges in optimizing resources and addressing environmental concerns. This work presents the I Dustbin, an innovative solution designed to enhance waste management processes through the integration of sensor technologies and automated features. The I Dustbin incorporates two key sensors: a garbage sensor and a level sensor. The garbage sensor detects the presence of waste within the bin, while the level sensor provides real-time monitoring of the garbage level. These sensors are seamlessly connected to a microcontroller, which processes the data and controls the system's functionalities. To improve user experience and facilitate waste disposal, the I Dustbin is equipped with a motorized lid. The lid automatically opens and closes, allowing for hands-free waste disposal. Additionally, an LED indicator is integrated to visually communicate the garbage level, providing users with clear and intuitive feedback. The LED indicator employs different colours or patterns to signify whether the dustbin is empty, at medium capacity, or full.

Adaptive institutional change in municipal waste management

Purpose. The paper proposes a new trajectory of institutional change that integrates economic (fiscal) and technical solutions in managing municipal waste.
 Methodology / approach. The study adopts a model for the study of institutional change. A retrospective, quantitative analysis of institutional change, a legal-historical analysis of formal institutions, and a comparative-institutional analysis are used to substantiate the link between municipal waste quantities and Gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Using correlation and regression analysis, we examine the relationship between institutional change in municipal waste management and recycling.
 Results. The study proves the impact of institutional change on municipal waste management in the EU and Bulgaria. It can change the relationship between GDP and the amount of waste and stimulate the implementation of more efficient and innovative waste management methods. The relationship between institutional change in municipal waste management are studied. The main idea is that more legal acts regulating municipal waste management and a higher human development index, wich reflects better and more efficient municipal waste management, will lead to higher recycling rates. The study discusses how institutional change aimed at effective municipal waste management can contribute to increased revenues and reduced costs for the government by promoting innovation in the sector, introducing more efficient waste collection and treatment technologies, and encouraging recycling.
 Originality / scientific novelty. The study highlights the lack of a unified direction in rules and policies for municipal waste management in Bulgaria and its impact on the system’s efficiency. It aims to present a new approach to solving the problems related to municipal waste management in Bulgaria that focuses on the importance of institutional change.
 Practical value / implications. The paper identifies differences between the municipal waste management systems in the EU and Bulgaria. The proposed financial and technical solutions help central and municipal administrations to create new institutions. These actions can be joint and better coordinated. All this should lead to changes in the regulatory framework. The new rules will contribute to stability and less need to change regulations, clarity for individuals and organisations to the optimal solutions for reducing municipal waste costs, and “pressure” on the central and local administration to take the necessary actions for such a change.

Municipal Waste Management in Polish Cities—Is It Really Smart?

Efficient municipal waste management is one of the key aspects of smart cities. In the literature, modern technological solutions are mainly analyzed in this context on the example of specific case studies. However, the author of this article attempts a more fundamental, holistic and comparative assessment of waste management in cities, recognized as smart and aspiring to this title. The objective of this attempt is to answer the following question: What results do the designated cities achieve in terms of waste volume reduction, waste segregation and collection costs? The research was carried out on 16 Polish provincial cities used as examples, including two (Warsaw and Wrocław) classified as smart cities in ranking of the Cities in Motion Index 2020. The analysis period covers 2019–2021, and during the research, in addition to the parameters listed above, a multi-criteria analysis was used to allow a collective assessment of the effectiveness of municipal management in the surveyed cities. The results obtained allow the conclusion that the volume of waste per capita in most of the analyzed cities is steadily increasing. The cost of waste management is also growing significantly. These unfavorable phenomena are particularly acute for smart cities, which in the holistic assessment were ranked among the three least effective units in terms of waste management (Lublin, Warsaw, Wrocław).

The Management of Municipal Waste through Circular Economy in the Context of Smart Cities Development

The paper focus on the topic of circular economy in the context of sustainable development, as one major objective of today's societies. Circular economy is mostly characterized by the need to improve the use of resources,by reducing waste and recycling. Under the sustainable development broader circumstances, circular economy becomes one of the important part of providing resources for the future generations, based on intra and intergenerational solidarity, having as starting points the 3 R (reuse, recirculation, recycling) and extending the lifecycle of products. Also, a circular economy is an important factor to develop the smart cities. The smart city can be understood as a sustainable city, a city well performing in economy, governance, but also in environment and living. The paper aims to identify a set of major actions recommended at the European Union level in order to promote this vision. It aims as well to highlight some of the economic and institutional barriers that might be faced at all economic levels. The EU recommendations associated with the trends of increasing the prices of raw materials and also with the need to reduce the import dependency such as better ensure the energetic security and sustainability by respecting the imperatives of environment protection, require a focus on efforts towards these directions. Starting from these approaches, we analyzed the progress achieved by Romania in the last ten years and the extent to which the country is prepared to implement an efficient management of municipal waste in order to promote the circular economy vision. Based on the progresses obtained in the last decade, we appreciate that Romanian decision makers had understood the importance of circular economy and had taken some specific action dedicated to the focus on this direction. Although some of the indicators referring to recycling show an improvement in Romania, it still has to improve performance in this field. We consider that one of the main challenges for the future in terms of circular economy refers to the further development of the sectors associated with the circularity of resource and with the emergence of employment opportunities, based both on an active involvement of public and private sectors.

Assessment strategies for municipal selective waste collection schemes

An important strategy to promote a strong sustainable growth relies on an efficient municipal waste management, and phasing out waste landfilling through waste prevention and recycling emerges as a major target. For this purpose, effective collection schemes are required, in particular those regarding selective waste collection, pursuing a more efficient and high quality recycling of reusable materials.This paper addresses the assessment and benchmarking of selective collection schemes, relevant to guide future operational improvements. In particular, the assessment is based on the monitoring and statistical analysis of a core-set of performance indicators that highlights collection trends, complemented with a performance index that gathers a weighted linear combination of these indicators. This combined analysis underlines a potential tool to support decision makers involved in the process of selecting the collection scheme with best overall performance. The presented approach was applied to a case study conducted in Oporto Municipality, with data gathered from two distinct selective collection schemes.

Comparative Efficiency of Municipal Recycling Systems Based on Source Separated or Commingled Collection; with a Case Study of the City Gatineau.

One of the essential steps in an efficient municipal waste management system is organizing the collection and sorting of recyclable materials. Having businesses and residential homes sort their recyclables before collection or collecting all recyclables together and then sorting them at a central plant as well as some other pick up and sorting models each have advantages anddrawbacks. This paper will involve a review of relevant academic studies on the topic and a case study of the city of Gatineau, which has recently transitioned from source separated to comingled collection allowing for a comparison of the two systems.

Environmental System Analysis for River Pollution Control

This paper presents a new tool, developed with the aim of assessing the environmental impact from industrial effluents and sewage systems in Hanumante River and to recommend the finest procedures to control water pollution so as to improve the water quality of Hanumante River using environmental system analysis. Hanumante River is heavily polluted due to inefficient management resulting in water-associated problems. The time horizon for this study is from 2000 to 2030, yearly, and the spatial boundary is considered to be Hanumante River, Bhaktapur, Nepal. The stakeholder, function, and scenario analyses are employed as three tools for study. The participation of main stakeholders aids in resolving their various conflicting interests in Hanumante River, thus creating a common understanding about the crisis under study. A complete functional analysis illustrates various functions fulfilled by the river and their associated services. Based on the interests of the stakeholders and their priorities, two alternatives resulting in four scenarios are identified and ranked against four selected criteria. A combination of improved industrial technology and efficient municipal waste management gives the best solution to the pollution problem in Hanumante River. Different alternative themes have corresponding effects on the selected criteria. The choice is in the hands of the decision makers of Bhaktapur City. The outcome of this paper will ultimately help decision and policy makers to analyze the environmental impact of river systems and find efficient and better-quality decision making for water resource management incorporating the knowledge and experiences of various stakeholders.