A Door-to-Door Waste Collection System Case Study: A Survey on its Sustainability and Effectiveness

Enhancing door-to-door waste collection forecasting through ML

We explore the application of machine learning (ML) techniques to forecast door-to-door waste collection, addressing the challenges in municipal solid waste (MSW) management. ML models offer a promising solution to optimize waste collection operations, especially amid growing urban populations and evolving waste generation rates. Leveraging comprehensive data from a northeastern Italian municipality, including various waste types, our study investigates ML algorithms' efficacy in predicting household waste collection requirements. We examine two key tasks: predicting daily waste exposure likelihood and forecasting fulfilled pickups over monthly and weekly periods. Both tasks are developed at the user level, forecasting user behavior based on features that describe the user. We split the data based on its temporal distribution and evaluated the models by forecasting user behavior in a future period, using the data from earlier periods to train the models. This study addresses a novel and challenging scenario, as, to the best of our knowledge, no prior work has specifically focused on door-to-door waste management using machine learning techniques. Results highlight ML models' potential in enhancing waste collection efficiency, aiding route planning, resource allocation, and environmental sustainability in urban areas. Additionally, our findings underscore the importance of tailoring strategies to waste categories and pickup frequencies for optimal performance.

The impact of information intervention on urban residents' willingness to sort domestic waste

Although many studies have assessed the effectiveness of waste sorting policies, few studies have explored residents' waste sorting behavior from the perspective of information intervention as a nudge. This study conducts an online survey to empirically examine the effects of information intervention on residents' willingness to sort domestic waste in urban China. We design and implement three types of randomized information interventions (positive, negative, and neutral) to 720 residents in the city of Beijing. Results from ordered probit models show that, despite the large amount of intervention-related policy context that the sampled subjects already possess before the intervention, information intervention can still effectively improve urban residents' willingness to sort domestic waste, and that the information framing effect exists. Specifically, while neutral information intervention does not affect urban residents' willingness to sort domestic waste, both positive and negative information interventions improve residents' willingness to sort domestic waste, and positive information intervention has a stronger effect. These effects are heterogeneous depending on gender, age, and income of residents, with the effect in male, young-age, and low-income groups stronger than that of female, old-age, and high-income groups respectively.

Identifying high-vulnerable garbage accumulation areas in Coimbatore City, India: an AHP-GIS approach for effective waste management

Urbanization has resulted in a surge in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation, posing critical waste management challenges in urban areas. To tackle this issue, we introduce a novel approach for mapping garbage vulnerability zones (GVZ) in Coimbatore City, India, combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS). Seven criteria, including per capita waste generation, open dumping, land use land cover, road/railway networks, and population, were integrated and analyzed in GIS. AHP pairwise comparison method assigned weights to each criterion and principal component analysis (PCA) further validated the interconnectedness of the criteria and their impact on the GVZs. The results indicated that open dumping locations and population density are the most influential factors contributing to the risk of garbage accumulation, making up 23.7% and 21.2% of the total weight, respectively. The GVZ map reveals that 94.6% of Coimbatore City is at risk of MSW accumulation, with 20.2% highly and 74.4% moderately vulnerable. Eleven high GVZ clusters were identified, with Saravanampatti, located in the northeastern part of Coimbatore City, being the most vulnerable area. The H3 hexagon format of the GVZ map enhances its usability for monitoring and mitigation capabilities. In conclusion, our comprehensive AHP-GIS approach facilitates effective waste management practices, sustainable resource utilization, and better environmental and public health outcomes in urban areas. The demonstrated methodology has the potential for application in similar developing urban areas in South Asia and the Global South, serving as a valuable tool to address the challenges posed by increasing MSW generation.

Smart technological options in collection and transportation of municipal solid waste in urban areas: A mini review

The rapid increase in quantities and the mismanagement of municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries are increasing the environmental impacts such as air, water and soil contamination. The present scenario of MSW management deals with numerous issues such as lack of technological resources, strategical management, social awareness, public participation, etc. Globally, numerous efforts in the form of new policies, schemes and regulatory acts have been made to develop a systematic collection and transportation (C&T) method using advanced, integrated technologies. However, very few studies have addressed this issue for low- and middle-income countries due to the lack of availability of reliable resources and data sets. This paper addresses the present challenges in C&T methods and highlights the application of information communication technology in monitoring, capturing, data management, planning, live tracking and communication. This systematic mini-review is based on the availability of technical resources, consumer acceptance and cost-effectiveness of different technologies in managing the processes. The study revealed that the C&T methods in most developed countries are designed based on their geographical stretch, climatic factors, waste characteristics and compatible technology, resulting in sustainable MSW management. However, developing countries have followed the same monotonous approach in managing their MSW, which fails in C&T process. The case study provides a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers to frame a better C&T process based on the recent technological interventions, infrastructure development, and social and economic status.

Door-to-door waste collection: A framework for the socio - Economic evaluation and ergonomics optimisation

Waste collection is the first step of waste management, and its characteristics impact workers' health and safety. Arising out of the challenge for waste collection operators to design sustainable systems of work, the authors review the literature on ergonomics and socio-economic sustainability and design a theoretical framework for assessing the sustainability of waste collection. The framework quantitatively assess the impact of the door-to-door collection system on the health and safety of the workers to provide indications to waste collection operators on how the load carried by workers can be minimised and the economic and social sustainability can be improved. As a case study, this paper investigates the musculoskeletal disorders derived from the manual material handling of waste containers affecting the workers in charge of door-to-door sorted collection of paper waste with the goal of optimizing the workers well-being and overall waste collection system performance The research study was conducted in collaboration with a company which operates in solid waste collection for Italian municipalities. For this purpose, the ergo-quality level of two paper waste collection systems is evaluated. For each system, ten scenarios of door-to-door paper waste collection are considered. The analysis is complemented by an economic analysis, which estimates the costs associated with the collection system under consideration, and a social life-cycle assessment. Results suggest that using 120-litres capacity bins would effectively improve ergonomics and optimise the costs of the investigated activity. More specifically, due to mechanised collection, the more limited number of lifting and carrying operations would expose the workers to lower ergonomic risk.

Priorities to inform research on marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is considered to have some of the highest levels of marine plastic pollution in the world. It is therefore vitally important to increase our understanding of the impacts and risks of plastic pollution to marine ecosystems and the essential services they provide to support the development of mitigation measures in the region. An interdisciplinary, international network of experts (Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam) set a research agenda for marine plastic pollution in the region, synthesizing current knowledge and highlighting areas for further research in Southeast Asia. Using an inductive method, 21 research questions emerged under five non-predefined key themes, grouping them according to which: (1) characterise marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia; (2) explore its movement and fate across the region; (3) describe the biological and chemical modifications marine plastic pollution undergoes; (4) detail its environmental, social, and economic impacts; and, finally, (5) target regional policies and possible solutions. Questions relating to these research priority areas highlight the importance of better understanding the fate of marine plastic pollution, its degradation, and the impacts and risks it can generate across communities and different ecosystem services. Knowledge of these aspects will help support actions which currently suffer from transboundary problems, lack of responsibility, and inaction to tackle the issue from its point source in the region. Being profoundly affected by marine plastic pollution, Southeast Asian countries provide an opportunity to test the effectiveness of innovative and socially inclusive changes in marine plastic governance, as well as both high and low-tech solutions, which can offer insights and actionable models to the rest of the world.

Study on the Method of Household Waste Collection: Case Study

This article presents research on how household waste is collected. An online survey, with 348 participants, from the Romanian region of Bacau, was conducted from October 2018 to May 2019. The online questionnaire included a set of over 40 questions, some with the aim of identifying the nature of the people participating, but most of the questions being designed to determine the collection methods for household waste. The major goal of the current study, as previously stated, was to determine the primary way of collecting household garbage from the public, while also learning various details about the participants, including their residence location, gender, age, and level of education. Referring to the means used for collecting household waste, the following items were noted: trash cans, cardboard boxes, dumpsters, and raffia bags. As a result of the study carried out, the following conclusions were drawn: it was noticed that 70 percent of those who participated in the survey came from urban areas; a larger percentage of female respondents took part in the survey (128 from 348); the majority of respondents were aged 18–29 (182); 178 respondents had a higher education level; collection of household waste in garbage bags represented 62.9 percent of the total collection methods. Following statistical processing of the data, and an overview of the main ways in which household waste was collected, a number of connections were found between the characteristics of the respondents and their household waste collection. What is noteworthy is that the characteristics of the respondents could be grouped into cumulative factors that played an important role in household waste collection: the first group formed by level of education and location of the respondents, and the second group formed by age and gender of the respondents.

Assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of packaging waste EPR schemes in Europe

This paper provides an analysis of the performance of European packaging waste systems, focusing on Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and Producer Responsibility Organizations. We adopt two separate but complementary empirical analysis: i) an indicator-based assessment of the cost-efficiency and recycling effectiveness of PROs; ii) a regression analysis of the determinants of recycling rates at the national level. The analysis spans over 25 national schemes and 21 Producer Responsibility Organizations. Our findings show that systems that have higher recycling rates do not entail necessarily higher costs. Non-competitive systems are more successful in increasing recycling rates no matter the cost; moreover, they are better able to use funds collected from EPR fees charged to producers, delivering improved cost-efficiency. Furthermore, higher recycling rates are associated with systems in which local authorities retain the operational responsibility of collection. Systems that do not involve local authorities always underperform. The policy implications are clear: local authorities should have some responsibility for collecting and sorting packaging waste and competitive systems should not be looked at as a first choice when designing a national recycling strategy. A mix of policy schemes, including non-profit EPR, door-to-door collection and Deposit-Refund-Schemes can be effective strategies for increasing the recycling rates of the waste streams that need more intervention, most notably plastic packaging.

Designing a fuzzy decision support framework for assessing solid waste management in the South European region

The environmental planning of cities and rural regions is associated with monitoring the performance of several services, including solid waste management. This study proposes a new framework for the comparative assessment of the performance of integrated municipal solid waste management. The framework includes the fuzzy MACBETH multi-criteria decision-making model used to investigate the uncertainties and inefficiencies associated with solid waste management systems. The model consists of all major stages in solid waste management and its environmental impact. The applicability of the model was examined in the South European region. According to the global fuzzy values of the criteria weights, the most influential reported criteria were GHG emission (0.113,0.157,0.202), the waste generation growth rate (0.034,0.063,0.141), and waste generation (0.034,0.054,0.127). The other results indicated that Italy (47.26) and France (42.67) had shown a better performance, only to be followed by Spain (37.68), whereas Greece (15.77) and Portugal (12.85) had received the lowest score. In the context of promoting the circular economy in Europe, having a higher recycling rate and less landfilling is beneficial for Greece and Portugal. In addition to this, all these countries should make efforts on decoupling the waste generation-GDP correlation. Furthermore, the applicability of the model depends on an appropriate scale and criteria. The model can be replicated to other developed societies with a few modifications. However, it is necessary to modify the criteria for assessing developing societies based on local conditions.

The Link between the Compliance with Environmental Legislation on Separate Collection and the Municipal Solid Waste Costs

Promoting Agenda 2030 through Circular Economy transition requires improving waste system management and increasing separate collection. In Italy, municipal solid waste management is entrusted to the municipalities, most of which have not yet reached the minimum threshold of 65% for the separate collection imposed by the Environmental Code in 2012. This research aims to investigate the effect of compliance with environmental legislation by Italian municipalities on the total cost of municipal solid waste management, filling a shortage of literature studies on this issue. It also investigates the other significant factors affecting municipal solid waste costs, analysing a large dataset of 1914 municipalities. The study uses regression analysis on aggregate and regional samples and population-based subsamples to verify the existence of economies of scale or density. The results show that environmental compliance determines cost reduction in the northern regions, thanks to more efficient separate collection management and recycling activities in the downstream phases of the process. Instead, environmental compliance produces a cost increase in central regions due to the lack of waste recycling and composting infrastructure. Finally, in the conclusions, policy implications are drawn for the Italian case.

Separate collection and bio-waste valorization in the Italian poultry sector by material flow analysis

Poultry meat production and consumption face several challenges under economic, social and environmental perspectives, and increasing concerns are associated with food loss and waste minimization. One of the main issues is related to the absence of a homogeneous and standardized separate collection of bio-waste at country level, which makes chicken bones, skin and food waste valorization a challenging goal. The present research, implementing the material flow analysis to the Italian poultry sector, aims at measuring poultry-related co-products and by-products, exploring food waste, chicken bones and skin and the current trends in the Italian bio-waste separate collection. Then, it discusses alternative separate collection strategies and sustainable consumption habits. Data have been collected according to a research triangulation approach, whereas system boundaries consider slaughterhouse, distribution and final consumption stage. It emerges that more than 1.50 Mt of live animals have been processed to obtain 0.46 Mt of fresh meat and 0.76 Mt of co-products and by-products, of which more than 0.32 Mt are represented by chicken bones and skin. In addition, more than 0.15 Mt of food waste have been recorded. The research adds an extra step towards the identification of awareness campaigns and separate collection strategies at national level.

Machine Learning and IoT-Based Waste Management Model

A rapid rise in inhabitants across the globe has led to the inadmissible management of waste in various countries, giving rise to various health issues and environmental pollution. The waste-collecting trucks collect waste just once or twice in seven days. Due to improper waste collection practices, the waste in the dustbin is spread on the streets. Thus, to defeat this situation, an efficient solution for smart and effective waste management using machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed in this paper. In the proposed solution, the authors have used an Arduino UNO microcontroller, ultrasonic sensor, and moisture sensor. Using image processing, one can measure the waste index of a particular dumping ground. A hardware prototype is also developed for the proposed framework. Thus, the presented solution for the efficient management of waste accomplishes the aim of establishing clean and pollution-free cities.