Collection Of Recyclable Waste Research Articles

Using a hybrid genetic- simulated annealing algorithm for designing a recyclable waste collection system

Using a hybrid genetic- simulated annealing algorithm for designing a recyclable waste collection system

Improving urban waste management: A comprehensive study on household waste generation and spatial patterns in the Grand Guayaquil Metropolitan Area.

This study tackles the growing global concern about municipal waste management, particularly in cities like the Grand Guayaquil Metropolitan Area (GGA). Through realistic field studies on in situ household waste generation and geographic information system (GIS) tools, this work offers a framework to predict the quantities and types of recyclable household waste for any metropolitan area in Latin America. Over 4 weeks, students collected, sorted and weighed recyclable waste types, including plastic, paper, metal, glass and fabric, from 776 sampled household of the GGA. ArcGIS survey tool identified household locations and allowed to survey different socio-demographic features. With the help of ArcGIS interpolation method, the total household waste generation for GGA was predicted, and the classification of the different types of recyclable waste was also spatially distributed for the study area. The report identified notable trends in plastic waste, specifically polyethylene terephthalate waste's steady prevalence and 42% growth rate, emphasizing the importance of enhanced recycling techniques. Spatial density maps showed a heterogeneous waste distribution across the GGA, emphasizing locations with higher waste output. This study demonstrates that improving recyclable waste collection can be accomplished with a moderately cheap expenditure by collaborating with academia to overcome knowledge gaps. This strategy provides opportunities to mitigate the environmental impacts of poor waste management.

Automated smart waste segregation system using IoT technology

One of the major challenges faced not just by India but globally as well is waste management. India is the second most populous country and naturally generates tonnes of garbage daily. It is common to find dustbins overflowing with junk scattered everywhere, not to mention that segregation of waste is conveniently neglected. Many-a-times it is observed that despite providing separate bins for dry and wet trash, the convention is carelessly ignored. With the traditional methods of periodic garbage collection and manual segregation of wet, metallic, non-recyclable, and recyclable waste proving to be inefficient, there is a need for a better solution. With the help of IoT, a more effective solution is proposed to improve the current system and take a step forward toward the vision of smart cities. The proposed system uses smart garbage tracking, segregation, and collection systems, interfaced with ultrasonic sensors, rainfall/moisture sensors, inductive proximity sensors, and servo motors, along with the necessary hardware, with Arduino as the main controlling unit. The Arduino platform is used as a software platform for the working of the model and obtaining the expected results.

Collection of recyclable waste in the city of Rijeka: Current status and perspectives

Collection of recyclable waste in the city of Rijeka: Current status and perspectives

Practical Improvement Scenarios for an Innovative Waste-Collection Recycling Program Operating with Mobile Green Points (MGPs)

Since 2021, the prefectural authorities of the Attica Region in Greece have been operating a rewarding recycling program for the collection of clean recyclable waste in collaboration with the “Specialist Integrated Association of the Prefecture of Attica” (EDSNA, in Greek) and private contractors, called “THE GREEN CITY”. This program mobilizes almost 30 mobile green points (MGPs) daily, which are self-propelled trucks that collect clean recyclable materials from citizens and businesses across the Attica Region. After one year of operation, this program has shown promising results, having more than 100,000 registered citizens and having already collected over 500 tons of clean recyclable municipal solid wastes in more than 60 municipalities of Attica. However, these promising results are accompanied by some significant financial and environmental costs. This study presents two different practical improvement scenarios for THE GREEN CITY recycling program’s current situation that ensure (a) the shortening of the annual kilometers and time on the remote routes of all programs, (b) the annual fuel-cost decrease for the MGPs and (c) the annual reduction of their CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Afterwards, we compare these two scenarios and conclude that the “first improvement scenario with main depot decentralization” is more realistic, feasible and has a bigger total sum of positive impacts than the second one. Therefore, this study strongly suggests the implementation of the “first improvement scenario with main depot decentralization” and opens the road to future improvement scenarios for various waste-management systems or recycling programs.

Smart Cities and Households’ Recyclable Waste Management: The Case of Jeddah

Over the past 30 years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has recorded rapid economic growth and development rates matched by corresponding levels of consumption. This has led to an exponential increase in the volume of municipal solid waste. Even if the bulk share of this waste is recyclable, the propensity of households to engage in the recycling of waste has so far produced a negligible effect. Arguably, in the context of the pervasive digitalization of public and private spaces, accompanied by the developments in information and communication technology (ICT), best conceptualized by reference to the concepts of smart cities and circular economy, it is natural to expect ICT and policy objectives to converge in order to encourage and enable greater engagement with waste segregation and recycling amongst households. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the feasibility and ways of increasing households’ participation in recyclable waste collection, segregation, and disposal in a context devoid of a top-down city-level waste management policy. To this end, the design thinking approach was employed to identify factors inhibiting/facilitating households’ engaging in recycling. A variety of ideation techniques were adopted in subsequent stages of the design thinking process, including interviews with stakeholders from the government and industry sectors, surveys with Jeddah households (N = 446), an eight week-long recyclable waste collection experiment, and feedback surveys (N = 46). The results suggest that applying relatively simple and resource-savvy tools aimed at promoting household recyclable waste collection has substantial potential. This, in turn, not only feeds into the debate on smart cities but also into the research of public policy.

A novel game-theoretic model for waste management with waste-to-energy and compost production under government intervention: A case study

Due to leachate contamination in groundwater and also soil, global concerns about improper waste management are today raising. On the other hand, with the emergence of the circular economy, increasing the recycling rate, reducing the landfilling rate, and producing by-products such as energy and compost from waste have become particularly important. In this regard in this paper, a chain consisting of a collector, a municipality, a compost plant, and a power plant is considered in a municipality-led Stackelberg game under government intervention. Indeed, the government supports citizens, the compost plant, and the power plant with subsidies to control the prices economically and sets penalties for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and leachate infiltration. The collector collects waste through two competitive channels: one from the city's trash bins and the other through buying recyclable waste from citizens, whereas each channel has its collection function. The municipality makes environmental efforts such as increasing people's awareness and investing in technology level to separate and treat leachate. The municipality also receives a fee from the collector for allowing the collection of recyclable waste. On the other hand, the compost and power plants produce compost and energy from waste and price their product based on the level of environmental efforts such as leachate treatment and GHG control, respectively. A real example has been finally implemented for the Tehran Waste Management Organization and the sensitivity analysis is presented. The results have shown that the source separation rate 72.36% and the recycling rate 69.62% of the ordinary waste channel are the highest and the landfilling rate 4.09% is the lowest in the best government policy, which is environmental efforts compared to other policies; Moreover, the profit of the members is the maximum in this policy.

Metaheuristic algorithm for the location, routing and packing problem in the collection of recyclable waste

The increasing accumulation of solid waste worldwide has made it necessary to look for alternatives that improve the operation of recyclable waste collection systems to make waste treatment more profitable and eco-friendlier. This paper introduces a new variant of the multi-compartment vehicle routing problem (MCVRP) that considers the rearrangement or relocation of collection points and packing the demand. This problem is called the location packing multi-compartment vehicle routing problem (LPMCVRP) and is developed for a waste collection system using vehicles with flexible compartments. A mathematical formulation of the problem is proposed. A two-phase metaheuristic algorithm based on a tabu search without packing considerations and a variant that integrates a tabu search and a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) scheme with packing constraints have been proposed. A set of instances adapted from the literature is generated to validate the proposed solution strategy. The results obtained show the efficiency of the proposed solution scheme for optimizing collection systems.

Optimizing the number and location of household waste collection sites by multi-maximal covering location model: An empirical study in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

Convenience has consistently been perceived as one of the crucial determinants of household recycling behavior in source separation systems studied over the last several decades. Although residents' accessibility to collection sites significantly affects household recycling behavior, allocating the collection sites for household waste is complex for policymakers. It requires balancing between residents' needs and the limited budgetary and human resources of local government and consideration of waste management policies. This article proposes the multi-maximal covering location model (MMCLM) to solve the waste collection site allocation problem based on residents' satisfaction while considering the capacity of municipal services. In this study, MMCLM was applied in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, a city with more than 25 years of successful experience in implementing household recycling. Six scenarios were developed to allocate recyclable waste collection sites. With 10 new sites, there was a more than 5% improvement in average access distance to drop off waste for all households. 30 new sites could effectively reduce the average access distance by 72.4% for 324 households who currently have to walk more than 10 min, and 8.0% of the average access distance for all residents. Low requirements for input datasets and flexible parameters adjustment make MMCLM more feasible in various contexts, especially for small to medium-sized cities or developing regions.

Reducing Volume to Increase Capacity—Measures to Reduce Transport Energy for Recyclable Waste Collection

The production of municipal waste is increasing all over the world. Although a significant part of the waste is collected as commingled waste, much of it is recyclable if disposed of properly. Thus, separate deposition and collection plays an extremely important role today, more than ever, not only in terms of preventing pollution but also from the point of view of recycling as a driver of circular economy and of efficient use of resources. This work is focused on the development of compaction equipment to be applied to containers, which allows a more efficient approach to the process of collecting waste for recycling. As a management option, recycling depends on collective behavior which is based on individual acts. Therefore, individual use of plastic/metal compaction systems can help meet recycling targets, even as a complement to conventional bins. Thus, herein a proposal is presented for a plastic/metal collection station with a built-in compaction element that allows for the compacting of the separated waste, individually, in an easily accessible drawer. Sorting and compacting waste before collection will result in a reduction of the number of collection/transport stops, which will also translate into higher energy efficiency, cost savings, optimization of the transported tons/km ratio, and profitability.

Capacited Vehicle Routing Problem with CO2 Emission Minimization Considering Path Slopes

This work presents the application of a CO2 emission estimation function for cargo vehicles on a Capacited Vehicle Routing Problems (CVRP) setting, considering route’s slopes variation. Comparisons were established with functions minimizing fuel consumption and route length in a case study about selective collection of recyclable waste at Sorocaba, state of São Paulo, Brazil. Routes with lower emissions have been achieved without significantly increasing fuel consumption or distance traveled.

Factors Influencing Household Waste Separation Behavior: Cases of Russia and Finland

This paper investigates the factors influencing the behavior of individuals in source-separation of municipal solid waste in an immature system for collection of recyclable waste (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and a more mature waste system (selected urban areas, Finland). Online questionnaires were applied to collect data from citizens of Saint Petersburg and the Finnish urban population. The data were examined within an extended theory of planned behavior using structural equation modeling for the identification of factors affecting waste source-separation behavior. The findings indicate that the factors differed significantly in the two waste systems. In Russia, the inconvenience of waste collection limited waste source-separation behavior, while intentions of individuals and information availability had an almost equal positive effect. In Finland, waste source-separation behavior was mostly affected by people’s intentions. Based on the findings, recommendations for the development of recycling practices were made for practitioners in Russia and possibly other early-stage systems for the collection of recyclable waste. Limitations of the study pinpointed the possibilities for future research.

The use of recycling bags: An overview of collection policies and a spatial assessment of bag use

An increasing number of recycling programs worldwide now use single-use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bags in conjunction with recycling bins for the storage and collection of recyclable waste. Recycling bags may increase recycling yield and lower street litter; however, they also come with potentially large environmental and economic costs, including the increased use of plastics. To assess the scale of recycling bag use, we conducted a review of municipal management policies and by-laws across Ontario, the birthplace of modern blue box programs. Over 40% of the municipalities we investigated, collectively representing more than 7 million residents, allow the collection of recycling in bags. Subsequently, we conducted a follow-up study to estimate the number of recycling bags actually used by residents, an important metric for environmental managers, in a medium-sized Ontario city that collects recyclables in both bags and bins. Across three collection dates, 9.0 ± 1.3% of households used recycling bags, with a mean of 1.65 bags per house (mean households sampled = 1540). We estimate that approximately 160 households could use over 10,000 recycling bags per year (∼380 kg of plastic). Spatial analysis on the distribution of recycling bags showed some evidence of clustering among nearby neighbours (i.e. social influence); however, these results were inconsistent and highly variable across sampling dates. Our study provides a valuable policy overview and critical baseline data for waste managers weighing the benefits (e.g., litter reduction) and drawbacks (e.g., debagging costs and plastic waste) of recycling bags for the collection of recyclable material.

Improvement Measures through Analysis of the Collection System of Recyclable Resources Discharged from Apartment Houses in Korea

To improve recyclable waste collection system, this study conducted a survey of 123 apartments complexes and 229 local governments and suggested the measures to improve the current collection system based on the results of the survey. The survey revealed that respondents preferred public intervention collection. Currently, 80% of apartment complexes input the results of recyclable resources into the circular resource information center, but private collection companies are required to directly input them to simplify the administrative system of local governments. Most apartment complexes choose private collection companies based on down payment, which is likely to result in excessive competition. 97% of apartment complexes that implement the price linkage system set a one-year cycle, indicating that the effectiveness of the price linkage system is poor and measures to improve it are necessary. The public collection ratio of local governments was found to be 100% for detached houses, 48% for obligatory apartment, and 83% for non-obligatory apartment. The mixed collection ratio of detached houses and multi-use facilities is 50%, which is higher than the mixed collection ratio of apartment houses (38%), which is expected to reduce the effectiveness of the recycling system. Hence, it is necessary to establish a collection system based on the source. To establish public responsibility collection, it is necessary to strengthen the standards and the price linkage system for collection companies. To reduce the administrative burden of local governments, it is necessary to manage apartment at a regional level or to entrust local government work.

Recyclable waste collection—Increasing ecopoint filling capacity to reduce energy for transportation

Urban waste production is increasing around the world. In the present Covid-19 context, an emergent flow of waste growth, as well as of pollution in general, stems from confinement and the use of protective masks. Although part of the waste is considered commingled, much is recyclable, if properly disposed off. Hence, recycling plays today, more than ever, an extremely important role, not only in terms of pollution prevention, but also from the point of view of the circular economy and of resources use efficiency. Thus, this work is focused on developing an approach to assist in recycling wastes. As a management option, recycling depends on a collective behavior, that relies on individual acts. Therefore, the individual use of plastic/metal compaction systems can help reaching the recycling targets, even as a complement to conventional commingled waste bins. Thus, we present a proposal for a plastic/metal collection station with a built-in compaction element that allows one to compact separated waste, individually, in an easily accessible drawer. Sorting and compaction of waste before collection will then result in a reduction of the number of collection/transportations stops, which will also translate into higher efficiency, reduction of costs, optimization of transported tons/km ratio, and profitability.

Socio-environmental and parasitological aspects of waste pickers in Minas Gerais, Brazil

The increase in the generation of Solid Urban Waste causes social, environmental problems and damages to the population's health. Professionals who work in the collection of recyclable waste are exposed to risks of contamination either by toxic elements or pathogenic organisms. The objective of the work was to estimate the types and prevalence of intestinal parasites in waste pickers. A field research was carried out from December 2017 to April 2018 with the voluntary participation of 26 waste pickers belonging to three associations in the municipality of Conselheiro Lafaiete, Minas Gerais, Brazil (CAAE: nº 79937817.7.0000.8122). In addition to the application a socio-environmental questionnaire, each volunteer provided a stool sample for laboratory testing the parasitological examination. Of the 26 survey participants, four (15.4%) had a positive result and were infected by the parasites Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba coli and Iodamoeba butschlii. Among the main factors that can contribute to the infection these waste pickers are the ingestion of untreated water for consumption in addition to reduced access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during waste management. One way to control the presence of parasites would be through health and environmental education actions, periodic parasitological examinations and permanent use of PPE.

An effective system for recovering recyclable waste from households in China: Ant Recovery’s bottom-up scheme in Changchun city

In light of China’s rising environmental governance focus on household waste recycling, this article analyses a novel recyclable waste recovery scheme, Ant Recovery, in Changchun, Jilin Province. In contrast to other recyclable waste collection systems, Ant Recovery emerged as a bottom-up venture established by members of the informal recycling sector in cooperation with the local recycling association. To assess the scheme’s performance, the analysis uses field research data obtained over 21 days of observatory and questionnaire surveys at one of Ant Recovery’s mobile collection points. Based on data from 1,501 documented recyclable waste transactions, the analysis indicates a median recovery rate of 438.4 kg/hour at the surveyed recovery station. Extended to the entire scheme’s network in Changchun, the figure extrapolates to 2,034.6 metric tons/day, which approximates to roughly 94% of waste recyclables generated by the city’s households. These achievements essentially result from two factors: (1) A beneficial policy environment established by central and local regulations and (2) AR’s operational compatibility with daily routines and profit orientation of waste recyclable delivering stakeholders. In comparison to many other recycling systems in China, the alternative model in Changchun appears to be indigenous with little requirement for novel organisational structures or high capital/ overhead costs.

Study on Effectiveness and Flexible Application of Recyclable Waste Collection Stations by Private Companies

Study on Effectiveness and Flexible Application of Recyclable Waste Collection Stations by Private Companies

An integrated decision-making method for locating parking centers of recyclable waste transportation vehicles

This study is motivated by a third-party logistics company in a modern city in China that manages the transportation of recyclable waste for the municipal government. Research in the area has rarely attended to the location of recyclable waste transportation vehicle parking centers (RWTVPCs). This study develops an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method through the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach, entropy weight (EW), and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) to select suitable RWTVPC sites. An interesting finding is that the MCDM method is more suitable for this task than the traditional location allocation model. A comparison of three MCDM methods verified the advantages of the proposed method in terms of stability and reliability. Moreover, we found through a sensitivity analysis that the ranking of alternatives was greatly affected by changes in the criteria weights but was not sensitive to changes in the parameters of the preferential decisions. Besides, the proposed method has advantages in terms of reducing the cost of transportation of recyclable waste and improving the efficiency of transportation. This provides a reference for the large-scale collection of urban recyclable waste. This paper provides some important implications for waste management that are useful for the implementation of the DEMATEL-EW-WASPAS method.

Connectivity of vegetation diversity, carbon stock, and peat depth in peatland ecosystems

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hoi An City was one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world. This led to a rapid increase in solid waste generation, leading to problems and challenges in solid waste collection and management. This problem is also being experienced by other developing countries of the world. Despite the existence of established waste management strategies, targets set for the collection of recyclable waste have not been met. This study introduces solutions to the problems and challenges faced by the waste management sector in Hoi An city and other developing countries. This study aimed to i) optimize the map of the recovery recycling stations in an urban community, ii) develop an effective solid waste collection system, and iii) provide management tools to enhance recycling activities, contributing to improving waste management in Hoi An city.METHODS: The RRSs were integrated into a solid waste collection system in the urban communities of Hoi An City, were conducted through location-allocation analysis in a geographic information system environment. Routing problems of carts were solved in the combination of the rescheduling of existing solid waste collection activities in the study site. The economic evaluation by scenarios was also calculated for ten years to assess the feasibility of scenarios.FINDINGS: Thirty-four locations were identified and optimized to accommodate the RRSs and new collection routes. The distances travelled and working time increased in proportion to the increase in waste separation effectiveness. Waste separation is vital to the effectiveness of the new solid waste collection system. The optimal solid waste practice model (in scenarios 2 and 4) revealed the positive results in improving the solid waste collection system, operating economy, and local adaptation.CONCLUSION: This study redesigned the solid waste collection system to solve the current problems in the tourism destination of Hoi An city. This study contributed as a case study of integrating urban recovery recycling stations into optimizing a solid waste collection system in a tourism destination. Introducing strict waste separation was the pivotal first step in systematically upgrading the solid waste collection system in Hoi An City. This study’s findings provide government officials and service providers with methods that can be applied to solve the problems faced by Hoi An city's existing solid waste collection and management system.