Influence of Handling Practices on Material Recovery from Residential Solid Waste

Luis F. Marmolejo, Luis F. Diaz, Patricia Torres, Mariela García, Mary H. Burbano, Carolina Blanco, Katherine Erazo and Jairo F. Pereira
Additional contact information
Luis F. Marmolejo: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Cali, Colombia
Luis F. Diaz: CalRecovery Inc., 2454 Stanwell Drive Concord, CA 94520-4811, USA
Patricia Torres: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Cali, Colombia
Mariela García: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Cali, Colombia
Mary H. Burbano: Sede Zarzal Universidad del Valle/Calle 14 Carrera 8 Esquina. Zarzal, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Carolina Blanco: Sede Zarzal Universidad del Valle/Calle 14 Carrera 8 Esquina. Zarzal, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Katherine Erazo: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Cali, Colombia
Jairo F. Pereira: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Cali, Colombia

Sustainability, 2010, vol. 2, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Material recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW) is becoming widely adopted in several developing countries. Residential solid waste is one of the most important components of MSW and the handling practices of the MSW by the generators have a major impact on the quality and quantity of the materials for recovery. This article analyzes the generation and composition of residential solid waste and the handling practices by users in three municipalities in Colombia that have a solid waste management plant (SWMP). The findings show that, although there are significant amounts of useful materials, their handling of the materials as “garbage”, the low recognition of recovery work, and the inadequate storage and source management practices, affect material recovery and the operation of SWMPs. These results may be taken as a reference for this type of municipality, because the solid waste management system and the type of operation of the SWMPs analyzed is similar to all of the SWMPs in the country as well as in other countries in the region.

Keywords: handling practices; material recovery; municipal solid waste; residential solid waste; developing countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/7/2070/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/7/2070/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:7:p:2070-2083:d:8938

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().