Towards Efficient Waste Management in Latvia: An Empirical Assessment of Waste Composition

Towards Efficient Waste Management in Latvia: An Empirical Assessment of Waste Composition

Waste management system is a complex system involving numerous waste streams, collection schemes, treatment processes and various actors. Bus as well as many other systems, waste management is recently experiencing new and more sustainable development trends including the promotion of circular econo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental and Climate Technologies Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 114 - 130
Main Authors: Kubule, Anna, Klavenieks, Kaspars, Vesere, Rudite, Blumberga, Dagnija
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Riga Sciendo 01-11-2019
Riga Technical University
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Biodegradability
Circular economy
Climate change
Complex systems
Composition
Economic growth
Empirical analysis
Garbage collection
Households
Linear programming
multiple regression analysis
Per capita
Planning
Recyclable materials
Recycled materials
Recycling
Resource recovery
Sustainable development
Trends
waste composition analysis
Waste management
waste management system
Waste streams
Latvia
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Waste management system is a complex system involving numerous waste streams, collection schemes, treatment processes and various actors. Bus as well as many other systems, waste management is recently experiencing new and more sustainable development trends including the promotion of circular economy and increased material recycling. Hence there is a need for the implementation of an improved waste management system that requires a significant and thorough planning stage, the results of which will significantly depend on the availability of detailed information of the possible waste flows and waste composition. The aim of this paper is to experimentally determine and analyse the composition of unsorted municipal waste to provide assessment for incorporating waste composition analysis into further planning and modelling of a next generation waste management system in Latvia. The experimental results indicate that the unsorted municipal waste stream comprises of up to 32.9 % of recyclable materials and 29.2 % of biodegradable wastes. Thus almost 60 % of the waste currently being subjected to unsorted waste management system in Latvia could potentially be source separated ensuring higher quality of the recovered materials and promoting circular value chains. The results indicate a slight difference between waste composition in different waste management regions, thus noting that, in addition to the number of inhabitants and their habits, the local system in each waste management region may influence the composition of the collected wastes.
ISSN:2255-8837
1691-5208
2255-8837
DOI:10.2478/rtuect-2019-0059