Assessment of biowaste losses through unsound waste management practices in rural areas and the role of home composting

Journal of Research and Innovation for Sustainable Society, 2021

The aim of the paper is to make an x-ray of the potential of biological waste collection for the production of biofuels and fertilizers in Romania. It presents the existing legislative framework on bio-waste management as well as recycling technologies. A case study on the evaluation of the potential for selective collection of bio-waste for its anaerobic digestion is described.

Sustainability, 2019

The exposure of rural communities to illegal waste dumping practices associated with the lack of or poor waste collection schemes prior to the closure of rural dumpsites under EU regulations and the role of collection efficiency afterward in reducing this critical environmental threat constitutes a key issue in rural Romania. The present study reveals huge amounts of household uncollected waste released into the natural environment outside the official statistics of rural dumpsites. Despite the expansion of waste collection coverage towards rural areas since 2010, the problem of illegal dumping practice is difficult to solve. The improvement of collection efficiency, better law enforcement, and surveillance of environmental authorities coupled with educational and environmental awareness are necessary steps to combat this bad practice. A circular economy paradigm must be enacted in rural regions through separate collection schemes and to improve cost-efficient alternatives, such as home composting, and traditional and creative reuse practices, particularly in less developed regions.

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2015

In the present work, different scenarios for the treatment of the organic fraction of municipal waste at regional scale are proposed and assessed by means of LCA. The geographical area under study is Catalonia (Spain). The current Catalan waste management scenario treating 1,218 Gg of organic waste is analyzed and compared to a new scenario treating the same amount of waste but fulfilling the European Landfill Directive and the new recently approved Catalan waste management plan. As final disposal (incineration and sanitary landfill) of untreated municipal solid waste is not permitted, the new scenario includes increasing anaerobic digestion treatment of source selected organic fraction of municipal solid waste while maintaining the existing composting plants for this type of waste. Gaseous emissions treatment equipment will be provided when not installed in composting plants. Home composting is also included. Non-source selected organic fraction of municipal solid waste will be treated by composting. Different scenarios for sensitivity analysis have also been proposed dealing with the influence of transport, fugitive methane emissions from anaerobic digestion plants and the use of compost among other issues. The new scenario proposed decreases the impact in 5 out of the 6 impact categories studied (from a 49% in eutrophication potential to a 9% in ozone depletion potential). The inclusion of methane fugitive emissions in anaerobic digestion installations in impacts calculation impairs the environmental benefits of this type of treatment facilities (increasing global warming potential value up to a 31%). Improvement of landfill gas collection is of utmost importance in decreasing global warming potential.

Waste Management, 2010

Environmental impacts and gaseous emissions associated to home and industrial composting of the source-separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste have been evaluated using the environmental tool of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Experimental data of both scenarios were experimentally collected. The functional unit used was one ton of organic waste. Ammonia, methane and nitrous oxide released from home composting (HC) were more than 5 times higher than those of industrial composting (IC) but the latter involved within 2 and 53 times more consumption or generation of transport, energy, water, infrastructures, waste and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions than HC. Therefore, results indicated that IC was more impacting than HC for four of the impact categories considered (abiotic depletion, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidation and cumulative energy demand) and less impacting for the other three (acidification, eutrophication and global warming). Production of composting bin and gaseous emissions are the main responsible for the HC impacts, whereas for IC the main contributions come from collection and transportation of organic waste, electricity consumption, dumped waste and VOCs emission. These results suggest that HC may be an interesting alternative or complement to IC in low density areas of population.

Waste and Biomass Valorization

The separated collection and management of biowaste (BW) must be implemented in next years in the European countries. In order to define a proper BW strategy, it is necessary to estimate the generation at a municipal level, since depending on the amount to be treated, the strategy may notably vary. The aim of this study is to develop a methodology to estimate BW generation at municipal level taking into account the characteristics of the region, the Municipal Solid Waste management applied, and different socio-economic variables that define the level of rurality of a municipality. A model to estimate the BW generation for each type of municipality has been developed using Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. As input data, results from a Waste Compositional Analysis executed by the regional government to samples collected on 38 municipalities and data related to influential socio-economic variables have been used. Significant influence of socio-economic variables on BW generation is...

Journal of Environmental Protection, 2018

The waste management industry across the European Union (EU) has undergone radical change following the recognition that a move towards a sustainable society is essential for humankind. To this end, the EU has targeted household recycling targets of 50% by 2020 and 70% by 2030 in a bid to move towards a more sustainable and resource efficient society. Despite such targets and a number of relevant progresses in technology (such as incineration, composting, and anaerobic digestion), there are several challenges facing the municipal solid waste sector. The purpose of this review is to assess the EU, UK and local policies that are affecting the way waste is treated, Greater Manchester (GM) in the United Kingdom (UK), will be used as an example. The review focuses upon anaerobic digestion as a choice technology for waste management and assesses the influences of policies upon the application of anaerobic digestion at the EU and local level, finding that at current rates of recycling, local and national targets will be missed by approximately 7.3% in the year 2030, even in the best case scenario where the maximum amount of biowaste is managed under the current operational capacity. The review concludes that in order to improve the recycling bio-waste capacity on a local, national, and EU level, the introduction of the AD must be increased tremendously.

2016

The management of household solid wastes is a constant concern for any community, and the preparing and putting into practice alternative management strategies need updated data regarding their quantitative and qualitative features. Thus, this study presents the household wastes characterization from Bihor County, Romania for the purpose of identifying and quantifying the materials likely to be recovered energetically or economically. The study was conducted in 6 areas (3 urban areas, 2 rural areas, 1 touristic area) of the county, for one year (during the 4 seasons), where variations of the wastes features were highlighted depending on the economic activities and lifestyle of the population in the area from whom samples were taken, as well as depending on the season. The results show that: the content of organic matter is 45.89%, combustible materials – 13.48%, recyclable materials – 20.26%, inert – 20.09% and hazardous wastes in smaller quantities (0.3%). Also, average humidity is...

”30 Years of Inspiring Academic Economic Research – From the Transition to Market Economy to the Interlinked Crises of 21st Century”

Food waste in Romania represents a major social problem: statistics indicate 5 million tons of food waste annually, representing between one third and a half of the total amount of food for human consumption produced in a year (about 250 kg / inhabitant). Annually, about a third of the products bought in Romania end up in the trash or are wasted unnecessarily. This quantity corresponds to about 2.55 million tons of food, respectively to the load of 127,500 trucks lined up from Bucharest to Munich. Every Romanian wastes an average of 353 grams of food per day in the household and over 6,000 tons of food ends up in the garbage every day. The greatest waste of food is registered in the urban environment, while the rural communities use traditional methods of capitalization of food waste in the household. In the urban environment, over 95% of the municipal waste reaches the landfill, thus making it impossible to capitalize on waste of any kind, both food and non-food. Present paper seeks to provide an overview regarding the phenomenon of food waste in Romania. It also presents the conclusions resulting from interviews and questionnaires with the owners of agro-mountain boarding houses on how they manage this phenomenon with a negative impact on life and the environment. The conclusions will also present a series of measures that can contribute to reducing food waste in Romania.

14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference on ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, EDUCATION AND LEGISLATION SGEM 2014 ,Conference Proceedings vol.1 : 585 – 592, ISSN 1314- 2704, 2014

The paper examines the per capita waste generation rates from from rural areas of Neamț County (Romania) using thematic cartography. Geographical approach of this issue is difficult because the lack of a geostatistic database at commune scale. Spatial analysis of waste indicators reveals several disparities between localities. Comparability of data between communes located in various geographical conditions must be carrefully made according to local waste management systems. Several dysfunctionalities are outlined in order to compare these results, on the one hand, between localities and on the one hand, between recent years. Geographical analysis of waste generation rates is imperative for a proper monitoring of this sector. Data from 2009, 2010 and 2012 shows that rural waste management is in a full process of change towards a more organized, stable and efficient system.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017

An attempt was made in the study to determine whether organic household waste containing food remnants (citrus fruit and vegetable peels, fat, dairy products, etc.) can be composted in home gardens. Kitchen waste was mixed with garden waste (bulking agent) at different proportions. Biodegradable waste was composted in two systems: in a pit dug in the ground and in a container. Fresh waste was supplied to the compost pile each week. The experiment was conducted from May to August 2014. The temperature inside the compost pile, ammonia emissions and moisture content were monitored throughout the experiment. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal kitchen waste to garden waste mixing ratio with regard to ammonia emissions and the temperature inside the compost pile. The C/N ratio or the porosity of composted material were not modified. The highest temperature was achieved in piles composed of 40% kitchen waste and 50% garden waste. The highest cumulative ammonia emissions were noted in pit and bin piles containing 0% bulking agent. The lowest cumulative ammonia emissions were observed in pit and bin piles containing 100% bulking agent and in bin piles containing 60% bulking agent, which helped reduce the odor of composting, thus contributing to a cleaner production process. The first phase of the composting process was completed in all piles after 8 weeks of the experiment. Ammonia emissions and accumulated temperature were calculated to compare the results obtained in each pile. The chemical composition of compost met the Polish quality standards for organic fertilizers.