IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i14p5520-d381901.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Laurieri

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Andrea Lucchese

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Antonella Marino

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Salvatore Digiesi

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

Municipal waste management is a relevant topic these days, in its relation to sustainable and environmental concerns. Sorting waste fractions at home for a door-to-door collection system proves to positively affect the environmental impacts of waste management strategies both by reducing the amounts of the waste landfilled and by originating new circular economies. However, the environmental impact caused by both waste collection and transport, together with waste quality, should be carefully evaluated to assess the sustainability of such a collection system. In order to evaluate the logistic and environmental effectiveness of a newly implemented door-to-door collection system in Altamura, a mid-sized town in Southern Italy, a survey was designed and submitted to a sample of citizens. The results obtained from the 385 completed surveys show that the door-to-door collection of glass waste is inefficient since most of the designated bins remain partially filled and less frequently delivered; citizens are more motivated to adequately collect sorted waste fractions upon receiving information about the subsequent environmental benefits and outcomes of the fractions collected; a high percentage of people still use disposable items in their daily life. Possible changes to the weekly bins collection schedule have been proposed in order to have a more proficient and environmentally sustainable waste collection service in the town. The survey is part of a project aiming at developing a smart device to support users in home waste management.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Laurieri & Andrea Lucchese & Antonella Marino & Salvatore Digiesi, 2020. "A Door-to-Door Waste Collection System Case Study: A Survey on its Sustainability and Effectiveness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:14:p:5520-:d:381901
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/14/5520/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/14/5520/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heleen Bartelings & Thomas Sterner, 1999. "Household Waste Management in a Swedish Municipality: Determinants of Waste Disposal, Recycling and Composting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(4), pages 473-491, June.
    2. Annegrete Bruvoll & Karine Nyborg, 2002. "On the value of households' recycling efforts," Discussion Papers 316, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    3. Malinauskaite, J. & Jouhara, H. & Czajczyńska, D. & Stanchev, P. & Katsou, E. & Rostkowski, P. & Thorne, R.J. & Colón, J. & Ponsá, S. & Al-Mansour, F. & Anguilano, L. & Krzyżyńska, R. & López, I.C. & , 2017. "Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 2013-2044.
    4. Nainggolan, Doan & Pedersen, Anders Branth & Smed, Sinne & Zemo, Kahsay Haile & Hasler, Berit & Termansen, Mette, 2019. "Consumers in a Circular Economy: Economic Analysis of Household Waste Sorting Behaviour," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Alexandre Tisserant & Stefan Pauliuk & Stefano Merciai & Jannick Schmidt & Jacob Fry & Richard Wood & Arnold Tukker, 2017. "Solid Waste and the Circular Economy: A Global Analysis of Waste Treatment and Waste Footprints," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 628-640, June.
    6. Rajaeifar, Mohammad Ali & Ghanavati, Hossein & Dashti, Behrouz B. & Heijungs, Reinout & Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Tabatabaei, Meisam, 2017. "Electricity generation and GHG emission reduction potentials through different municipal solid waste management technologies: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 414-439.
    7. Gilli, Marianna & Nicolli, Francesco & Farinelli, Paola, 2018. "Behavioural attitudes towards waste prevention and recycling," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 294-305.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nainggolan, Doan & Pedersen, Anders Branth & Smed, Sinne & Zemo, Kahsay Haile & Hasler, Berit & Termansen, Mette, 2019. "Consumers in a Circular Economy: Economic Analysis of Household Waste Sorting Behaviour," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Alessandro Concari & Gerjo Kok & Pim Martens, 2020. "A Systematic Literature Review of Concepts and Factors Related to Pro-Environmental Consumer Behaviour in Relation to Waste Management Through an Interdisciplinary Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-50, May.
    3. Di Foggia, Giacomo & Beccarello, Massimo, 2021. "Designing waste management systems to meet circular economy goals: The Italian case," MPRA Paper 105959, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Soltanian, Salman & Kalogirou, Soteris A. & Ranjbari, Meisam & Amiri, Hamid & Mahian, Omid & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Jafary, Tahereh & Nizami, Abdul-Sattar & Gupta, Vijai Kumar & Aghaei, Siavash & Pe, 2022. "Exergetic sustainability analysis of municipal solid waste treatment systems: A systematic critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    5. Pfister, Naomi & Mathys, Nicole A., 2022. "Waste taxes at work: Evidence from the canton of Vaud in Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Jaehong Lee & Hans Han & Jong-Yoon Park & David Lee, 2021. "Urban Informatics in Sustainable Waste Management: A Spatial Analysis of Korea’s Informal Recycling Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, March.
    7. Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Kądziela, Tadeusz & Hanley, Nick, 2014. "We want to sort! Assessing households’ preferences for sorting waste," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 290-306.
    8. Hage, Olle & Söderholm, Patrik & Berglund, Christer, 2009. "Norms and economic motivation in household recycling: Empirical evidence from Sweden," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 155-165.
    9. Mikolaj Czajkowski & Katarzyna Zagórska & Nick Hanley, 2018. "Social Norms and Pro-Environment Behaviours: Heterogeneous Response to Signals," Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics 2018-02, University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development.
    10. Marta Wiśniewska & Andrzej Kulig & Krystyna Lelicińska-Serafin, 2021. "Odour Nuisance at Municipal Waste Biogas Plants and the Effect of Feedstock Modification on the Circular Economy—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    11. Lee, Misuk & Choi, Hyunhong & Koo, Yoonmo, 2017. "Inconvenience cost of waste disposal behavior in South Korea," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 58-65.
    12. Ek, Claes, 2018. "Prosocial behavior and policy spillovers: A multi-activity approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 356-371.
    13. Berglund, Christer, 2006. "The assessment of households' recycling costs: The role of personal motives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 560-569, April.
    14. Dehkordi, Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Noorbakhsh & Jahromi, Ahmad Reza Taghipour & Ferdowsi, Ali & Shumal, Mohammad & Dehnavi, Ali, 2020. "Investigation of biogas production potential from mechanical separated municipal solid waste as an approach for developing countries (case study: Isfahan-Iran)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    15. Grzegorz Wielgosiński & Justyna Czerwińska & Szymon Szufa, 2021. "Municipal Solid Waste Mass Balance as a Tool for Calculation of the Possibility of Implementing the Circular Economy Concept," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-25, March.
    16. Mukherjee, C. & Denney, J. & Mbonimpa, E.G. & Slagley, J. & Bhowmik, R., 2020. "A review on municipal solid waste-to-energy trends in the USA," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Anna Rolewicz-Kalińska & Krystyna Lelicińska-Serafin & Piotr Manczarski, 2020. "The Circular Economy and Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Strategies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, August.
    18. Kamila Klimek & Magdalena Kapłan & Serhiy Syrotyuk & Nikolay Bakach & Nikolay Kapustin & Ryszard Konieczny & Jakub Dobrzyński & Kinga Borek & Dorota Anders & Barbara Dybek & Agnieszka Karwacka & Grzeg, 2021. "Investment Model of Agricultural Biogas Plants for Individual Farms in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-30, November.
    19. Ying Xu & Sarah Ann Wheeler & Firmin Doko Tchatoka, 2023. "Evaluating policy changes on council waste generation and diversion: Evidence from South Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(4), pages 541-557, October.
    20. Philip A. Tominac & Victor M. Zavala, 2020. "Economic Properties of Multi-Product Supply Chains," Papers 2006.03467, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2020.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:14:p:5520-:d:381901. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.