Plastic impurities in biowaste treatment: environmental and economic life cycle assessment of a composting plant.

The study focuses on an Italian composting plant and aims to investigate the impact of the presence of plastic impurities in the collected biowaste on the environmental and economic performance of the plant. The study is divided into two main steps: firstly, a material flow analysis was conducted to quantify the number of impurities (e.g.

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.

Assessing the externalities of a waste management system via life cycle costing: The case study of the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy).

Effective and efficient urban waste management systems (WMSs) are a cornerstone for a sustainable society. Life cycle costing (LCC) provides a useful framework for the joint analysis of economic and environmental impacts of a WMS, by considering both financial and external costs. The present study applies the methodology of societal LCC to the WMS of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna to provide a case study on how the available information on waste flows and budget costs of a real WMS can be used to obtain an estimate of the total cost of waste management, including externalities.

Municipal solid waste collection systems: An indicator to assess the reusability of products.

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A framework for sustainability assessment and prioritisation of urban waste prevention measures.

Waste prevention (WP) can play a significant role in pursuing both sustainable development and decarbonization. Nevertheless, a general method to monitor and evaluate WP does not exist yet. This study proposes a framework for the sustainability assessment and prioritisation of waste prevention measures (WPMs), at consumption level.

Municipal solid waste prevention: A review of market-based instruments in six European Union countries.

This article focuses on quantitative prevention of municipal solid waste among the 28 member countries of the European Union. A strict definition of waste prevention is used, including waste avoidance, waste reduction at source or in process, and product reuse, while recycling is outside the scope of this article. In order to provide a solid overview of the European situation, the study selected six countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain).