An assessment of the speed of transition from municipal solid waste and packaging waste landfilling to recycling

Abstract

In recent years, the transition from landfilling municipal solid waste (MSW) to recycling has emerged as a significant trend in response to the growing volume of waste generated and the pressing need for sustainable waste management practices. The primary objective of this study was to identify countries that have experienced the most rapid transitions and subsequently analyse their performance. The central concept was to investigate the speed of transition by examining actualized transitions in selected countries. Based on this objective, seven European countries (Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) that had considerable progress in transitioning from landfilling to recycling MSW have been selected as the cases of the study. Also, key metrics for evaluating the speed of this transition, along with the environmental impact of different waste treatment methods have been introduced and calculated. The present investigation analyses key metrics to assess the speed of change during the transition period. Based on the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generated, the speed of transition to recycling (STR) and landfill reduction (SLR) was calculated. STR values ranged from 2.2 to 4 percent per year, whereas SLR values ranged from 2.6 to 7 percent per year. Recycling development (RD) and landfill reduction (LR) during the transition period ranged from 61% to 892% for RD and 10% to 88% for LR. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from MSW and packaging waste (PW) in Italy and Poland were analyzed since only data were available for these countries. The total percentage of GHG emission changes (EC) was -31.4% and -37.4% for Italy and Poland, respectively, and the speed of GHG emission changes (SEC) were -3.9 and -3.7 %-points/a. The μ index, which quantifies GHG emissions per kilo ton of landfill and recycling of MSW, indicated changes in total emissions during the transition period, with ∆μ values of -0.15 and -0.32 (kt CO2eq/kt (recycling + landfill)) for Italy and Poland, respectively. In the study, recycling is highlighted as a critical part of sustainable waste management and environmentally friendly waste disposal.