Waste management systems in the context of sustainability

Abstract

The present paper deals with waste management systems in the context of sustainability in selected municipalities. The author's team aimed to find the key waste groups according to the classification groups that have a major impact on the volume of waste and the cost of the system, thus facilitating management decision-making. In order to optimise the management of the entire waste management system from the perspective of the statutory municipality, it was first necessary to reduce the original list of 53 waste items to a significantly smaller number. With the help of waste management experts, criteria for reducing the number of waste input items were defined, resulting in a reduced statistical sample of 27 items. Each item is quantified by the amount of waste per year and the cost of the system per year. The mathematical apparatus consisted primarily of calculating average values as well as marginal slopes of waste quantity and cost. The interrelationships between waste groups were graphically recorded in perceptual maps. The individual analyses were carried out primarily for a statutory city, with secondary comparisons of the results with smaller towns and small villages. The analytical procedures verified that the catalogue of basic components of mixed municipal waste can be significantly reduced for decision-making in secondary resource management. The amount of waste selected in each group significantly impacts the cost of the whole waste management system. Of the original 15 waste groups, only three groups appear to be the main ones. The municipal waste group even has a decisive influence on both the quantity of waste and the cost of the whole system. Thanks to these findings, from the point of view of both the manager and the management of the statutory city, it is possible to focus on this core group, which contains the 13 original catalogue items.