Multi-level stratification of territories for waste composition analysis.

The fundamental knowledge at all levels of decision-making related to waste management is the quantity and composition of waste. Many articles deal with methods for estimating the composition of municipal waste, but most details are given as to how many categories should be chosen and what technical procedure should be followed. In order to obtain a broader view and a reasonable evaluation of the results, it is necessary to select the areas where the analyzes will be performed effectively. Current approaches have insufficiently addressed this issue at the regional and national levels. This paper presents a method that uses multi-level stratification to divide municipalities into similar groups to reduce the number of observations needed to obtain an estimate of the composition of waste in a selected area (region or state level). The method combines expert knowledge with statistical considerations and makes use of cluster analysis. Socio-economic and waste-related parameters are used within the individual steps. Regarding the available financial resources and the required accuracy of the results, the municipalities in which the analyzes should take place are selected. These representative municipalities represent other municipalities in the created groups, and thanks to them, it is possible to estimate the composition of waste in any municipality, region, or larger territory. Waste analysis planning is an essential procedure for waste management, but the respective costs represent a crucial factor at the national level and even more for individual municipalities. Estimating waste composition impacts the transition to sustainable waste management and is thus a key element for further development in this sector. The presented method demonstrates the selection of 10 representative municipalities from the Czech Republic, but an arbitrary number can be set respecting the financial resources. Estimating the composition of the mixed municipal waste for the Czech Republic should cost around 72,000 euros for ten representatives with different distribution of dwelling types. The method is described in general and can be applied to any territory/country in the world, considering local conditions and possibilities.

Impact assessment of pollutants from waste-related operations as a feature of holistic logistic tool.

Waste management has still been a developing and progressing field, which demands continual improvements in waste transportation as well as proper selection of locations and technical operation of new treatment facilities. Most of research papers on waste management planning have been dealing with optimisation of network flows, thus minimising the cost and improving economic criteria. The shortest paths to treatment facilities are considered together with detailed analysis of their operation including heat and electricity demands in their vicinity. The tasks sometimes include social and global environmental criterions, however, the direct local consequences also play an important role and should be examined. A decision-making strategy in waste management updated with the local emission impact on the population is proposed in this paper. The paper focuses on the first move in analysing the production, dispersion, and impact of pollutants, originating in transport, with regards to the population living close to routes. The calculation of emission produced during the transport of waste takes into consideration the altitude profiles of routes, container loads, and specific types of vehicles. The consecutive estimated impact on the population reckons with the distances between routes and municipalities as well as their sizes in terms of the numbers of inhabitants, where the transportation routes are divided into smaller segments and dispersion is limited with threshold value. The proposed approach describing the emission effect has been tested using real-life operating data corresponding to the specific, 81 km long route along which approximately 25 t of waste is transported 800 times a year. The impact of pollutants on the population was evaluated and discussed. Results of the analysis were quantified for this route to create an edge characterisation needed for further calculations. This approach applied to the whole network then yields input data needed for future research of novel strategies in facility location problems. Other possible extensions of the presented approach include more accurate dispersion function or detailed calculation of the impact of pollutants with respect to specific locations of residential houses.