In 2014, the total production of waste in Europe was 2’503 milion of tonnes and it has been the highest value registered since 2004. Every year, economic and socio-demographic factors together with different lifestyles and culture habits contribute at increasing the amount of waste generated. As a consequence, an increase of waste generation means an increasing in the use of raw materials, natural sources and disposal of waste, which result in depleting the environment. For these reasons, in the latest years, the European Commission has adopted strategies in order to implement the concept of Circular Economy in all Member States. The main goal of this concept is to reduce the use of raw materials, enhance the waste recycling and improve the management of all the processes. Waste management is hence the common element among all the production chains and it is the core of this study. In particular, this study aimed at establishing a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) model according to the Danish household waste management system to support future developments and decision-making. The developed model was then applied to the Italian context in order to perform comparisons between the two countries. The established MFA allowed obtaining an overview of the situation in Denmark. Currently, only 42% of waste is collected for recycling, which is a slightly different number than what reported by the Danish EPA. Indeed, this thesis work pointed out some inconsistencies in waste reporting. Firstly, since inconsistences on the initial data contributed at decreasing the accuracy of data on primary waste production, some assumptions were introduced. Consequently, analyses aimed at verifying how those assumptions affected the results were performed. Moreover, the definition of the recycling rate and the role of waste tracking were analysed. Recycling rates are usually calculated by each Member State through different methodologies, and comparisons among European countries are hence difficult. Thus, the recycling rate was estimated using different recycling indicators to evaluate how the final recycling rate changes according to the values used. As regards the tracking of waste, there is not a common approach of counting the imported and the exported amount of waste among the Member States, which increases illegal exchanges of waste. The MFA was, then, used as a tool to perform future scenarios to enhance the recycling of the household waste, especially of plastic and organic waste, according to the goal set by the Danish government. The scenario performed would allow reaching the recycling rate of plastic and organic waste up to respectively 65% and 88%, which would contribute at increasing the overall recycling up to 74% in 2035. Appling the MFA model to the Italian context allowed comparisons between Denmark and Italy, focusing on the evaluation of the recycling rate through different recycling indicators. Since the methodology through which the data are collected is different, the comparisons were performed regarding specific waste fractions. Finally, the model was applied in order to perform future scenarios on recycling regarding Italy. At national level, Italy should focus on the increase mainly of plastic and metal collection which currently is respectively 32% and 34%. This study also focused on performing future scenarios considering the three main geographical areas in which Italy is usually split (i.e. Northern, Centre and Southern) which allowed to underline differences among them and to estimate the possible trends on the increase of collection by each of them. Indeed, while in Northern Italy the collection rate in 2015 was 49%, in Southern it was only 34%. The role of Centre and Southern Italy is hence crucial in order to improve the waste management system.
Nel 2014 la produzione totale di rifiuti in Europa è stata di 2’503 milioni di tonnellate, il cui valore è il più elevato registrato dal 2004. Ogni anno, fattori economici e socio-demografici uniti a diversi stili di vita e cultura contribuiscono ad aumentare la produzione di rifiuti con conseguente aumento dell'uso di materie prime, fonti naturali e smaltimento dei rifiuti, che si traduce in un esaurimento dell'ambiente. Per queste ragioni, negli ultimi anni, la Commissione Europea ha adottato strategie al fine di attuare il concetto di Economia circolare in tutti gli Stati membri. Il principale obiettivo di tale concetto è quello di ridurre l'uso di materie prime, incentivare il riciclo dei rifiuti e migliorare la gestione di tutti i processi. La gestione dei rifiuti si pone quale elemento comune tra tutti i processi produttivi e costituisce il cuore di questo studio. In particolare, questo progetto si propone di analizzare la situazione attuale in Danimarca, effettuando un'Analisi del Flusso di Materiali (MFA) del sistema di gestione dei rifiuti urbani danese come modello di supporto a sviluppi futuri. Tale modello è stato poi applicato al contesto italiano con lo scopo principale di confrontare la gestione dei rifiuti di entrambi i paesi. Il modello ha permesso di sviluppare una panoramica della situazione in Danimarca. Attualmente, solo il 42% dei rifiuti viene raccolto per via differenziata, il cui valore, ottenuto attraverso l’implementazione del modello, è risultato leggermente diverso da quello riportato dall'EPA danese. Da questo lavoro di tesi, infatti, sono emerse alcune incongruenze riguardanti la raccolta dei dati. In primo luogo, le incongruenze trovate sui dati iniziali (riportate dall’EPA danese) hanno contribuito a ridurre l'accuratezza dei dati sulla produzione di rifiuti e sono state, quindi, introdotte alcune ipotesi. Di conseguenza, sono state eseguite analisi volte a verificare come tali ipotesi influenzano i risultati. Inoltre, sono stati analizzati la definizione del tasso di riciclo e il ruolo di tracciamento dei rifiuti. I tassi di riciclo sono generalmente calcolati da ciascuno Stato membro attraverso diverse metodologie e pertanto confronti tra paesi europei risultano complessi. In questo studio, quindi, il tasso di riciclo è stato stimato utilizzando diversi indicatori per valutare come il tasso finale varia in base ai valori utilizzati. Per quanto riguarda la tracciabilità dei rifiuti, non esiste un approccio comune per il conteggio della quantità di rifiuti importata e esportata tra gli Stati membri, il quale comporta un aumento di scambi illegali di rifiuti. Inoltre, il modello è stato utilizzato come strumento per eseguire scenari futuri per migliorare il riciclo dei rifiuti domestici, in particolare di plastica e organico, in base all'obiettivo fissato dal governo danese. Lo scenario così realizzato consentirebbe di raggiungere la raccolta di plastica e organico rispettivamente fino al 65% e all'88%, dalla quale deriverebbe un aumento il riciclo complessivo fino al 74% nel 2035. L'applicazione del modello al contesto italiano ha permesso di confrontare i due paesi, Danimarca e Italia, focalizzandosi, in particolare, sulla valutazione del tasso di riciclo attraverso diversi indicatori. Poiché la metodologia di raccolta dati è diversa, i confronti sono stati effettuati su specifiche frazioni di rifiuti, le quali sono risultate essere comparabili. Infine, il modello è stato utilizzato per effettuare degli scenari futuri sul riciclo in Italia. A livello nazionale, l'Italia dovrebbe concentrarsi sull'aumento principalmente della raccolta di plastica e metallo, che attualmente è rispettivamente del 32% e del 34%. Questo studio si è, inoltre, concentrato anche sull'esecuzione di scenari futuri considerando le tre principali aree geografiche in cui l'Italia è solitamente divisa (i.e. Nord, Centro e Sud). Infatti, mentre al Nord, il tasso di raccolta nel 2015 era del 59%, al Cento e al Sud era rispettivamente del 44% e del 34%. Quindi, un focus sulle macro aree italiane ha permesso di evidenziare le differenze tra loro e di stimare specifici scenari per ogni macro area volti al raggiungimento complessivo di raccolta al 65% nel 2030.
Material flow analysis model of the household waste management sector : a focus on Denmark and Italy
ABBATE, ELISABETTA
2016/2017
Abstract
In 2014, the total production of waste in Europe was 2’503 milion of tonnes and it has been the highest value registered since 2004. Every year, economic and socio-demographic factors together with different lifestyles and culture habits contribute at increasing the amount of waste generated. As a consequence, an increase of waste generation means an increasing in the use of raw materials, natural sources and disposal of waste, which result in depleting the environment. For these reasons, in the latest years, the European Commission has adopted strategies in order to implement the concept of Circular Economy in all Member States. The main goal of this concept is to reduce the use of raw materials, enhance the waste recycling and improve the management of all the processes. Waste management is hence the common element among all the production chains and it is the core of this study. In particular, this study aimed at establishing a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) model according to the Danish household waste management system to support future developments and decision-making. The developed model was then applied to the Italian context in order to perform comparisons between the two countries. The established MFA allowed obtaining an overview of the situation in Denmark. Currently, only 42% of waste is collected for recycling, which is a slightly different number than what reported by the Danish EPA. Indeed, this thesis work pointed out some inconsistencies in waste reporting. Firstly, since inconsistences on the initial data contributed at decreasing the accuracy of data on primary waste production, some assumptions were introduced. Consequently, analyses aimed at verifying how those assumptions affected the results were performed. Moreover, the definition of the recycling rate and the role of waste tracking were analysed. Recycling rates are usually calculated by each Member State through different methodologies, and comparisons among European countries are hence difficult. Thus, the recycling rate was estimated using different recycling indicators to evaluate how the final recycling rate changes according to the values used. As regards the tracking of waste, there is not a common approach of counting the imported and the exported amount of waste among the Member States, which increases illegal exchanges of waste. The MFA was, then, used as a tool to perform future scenarios to enhance the recycling of the household waste, especially of plastic and organic waste, according to the goal set by the Danish government. The scenario performed would allow reaching the recycling rate of plastic and organic waste up to respectively 65% and 88%, which would contribute at increasing the overall recycling up to 74% in 2035. Appling the MFA model to the Italian context allowed comparisons between Denmark and Italy, focusing on the evaluation of the recycling rate through different recycling indicators. Since the methodology through which the data are collected is different, the comparisons were performed regarding specific waste fractions. Finally, the model was applied in order to perform future scenarios on recycling regarding Italy. At national level, Italy should focus on the increase mainly of plastic and metal collection which currently is respectively 32% and 34%. This study also focused on performing future scenarios considering the three main geographical areas in which Italy is usually split (i.e. Northern, Centre and Southern) which allowed to underline differences among them and to estimate the possible trends on the increase of collection by each of them. Indeed, while in Northern Italy the collection rate in 2015 was 49%, in Southern it was only 34%. The role of Centre and Southern Italy is hence crucial in order to improve the waste management system.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2018_04_Abbate.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/141166