Publication details
Sack collection of recyclable municipal waste: Less distance, more separation?
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Municipal solid waste represents an increasing environmental issue in modern societies. In 2012, each individual in the European Union produced on average approximately 500 kg of municipal waste. One way of reducing this amount would be to separate the waste more. Theory identifies the availability of infrastructure for waste separation facilities as the most important factor affecting the willingness to separate. In this paper we compare the effects of two common systems of waste separation: drop-off collection represented by “separation nests” and curbside collection represented by the sack collection. We follow the idea suggested by the previous research that if reaching the separation site requires less effort, people are more likely to separate their waste. Our results prove this. We show that with separation nests the amount of separated paper and plastics compared to total municipal solid waste is approximately 8-9%; with a sack collection system added, the amount increases up to approximately 11-12%. If we add a motivation factor in the form of rewards per amount of separated waste, the amount of separated paper and plastics increases up to 23%. Additionally, higher density of separation nests has been also identified as a factor in increasing separation level. Our results prove that with more available separation sites, people are willing to separate more, and that certain waste separation systems can have dramatic impact on the overall separation rate. Such findings may be utilized by municipalities trying to increase their separation rates. |
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