Search

The main aim of the study was to propose a useful methodological approach to define easily understandable indicators to use in communication campaigns organized to improve the efficacy of municipal solid waste collection. For this purpose, six economic-environmental indicators were defined, combining life cycle thinking and environmental communication. The indicators make it possible to obtain several combinations that can follow a variety of communication channels. Three indicators (quantity of recyclable materials recoverable from unsorted residual waste; total potential economic saving; number of jobs for young people as communicators) are expressed in absolute value and therefore refer to the whole community even if they are also good for single-targeted messages. The other three indicators (potential economic saving for each citizen; per capita saving of carbon dioxide equivalent; per capita saving of Disability Adjusted Life Years) are normalized with respect to the number of inhabitants and therefore refer to the individual citizen, but can also be used for global messages. As a case example, the methodology was applied to the collection of paper and cardboard in twelve Southern Italy cities obtaining very promising results. For example, the maximum quantity of paper and cardboard recoverable from unsorted waste would allow Naples and Palermo to recover more than €15 million. The maximum potential economic saving for each citizen was 25 €/capita. The economic saving obtained for Naples and Palermo could be translated in more than one thousand positions as young environmental communicators. Catania was the city with both the highest per capita potential saving of carbon dioxide (>60 kg CO2eq./capita) and maximum hypothetical per capita ‘life-time recovery’ (almost an hour). The innovative communication method used (‘Greenopoli’) assumed that school is the starting point to obtain a change of mindset because speaking with students (all potential communicators) means indirectly communicating with all other targets.

The main aim of this study was to evaluate, in the design phase, the most environmentally sound alternative between two on-site small-scale wastewater treatment systems (designed for 15 inhabitants), namely an activated sludge compact system and a constructed wetland system (both in linear low-density polyethylene), using Life Cycle Assessment. The procedure considered three sensitive parameters with three values. All the 27 combinations were evaluated with three different impact assessment methods (generating 81 comparison cases): IPCC 2007 100 years, Ecological Footprint and ReCiPe 2008 H. The constructed wetland system was the best environmental choice in 93% of the cases. Realizing the two treatment systems in different European countries, the activated sludge system would be the best environmental choice in some cases. Considering the production of electricity with photovoltaic systems, the total impact of the activated sludge system, evaluated with the ReCiPe 2008 H method, would be smaller than that of the constructed wetland system. The variation of the operating lifetime parameter had a major influence on the constructed wetland system, where the greatest consumption of energy and resources occurs during the construction phase. There were significant differences among the results with ReCiPe 2008 H and those with Ecological Footprint and IPCC 2007 100 years. Therefore, in a Life Cycle Assessment study, it would be preferable to adopt several impact assessment methods in order to verify how the results can vary.

This paper presents the results of a survey regarding customer satisfaction as well as other aspects relating to the frequency and motivations of citizens going to a separate collection centre (SCC) for recyclables in a Southern Italian town. The study was carried out in 2015 to verify whether there were significant changes in the behaviours and opinions of the SCC’s users, who had been interviewed in 2013, in the light of the change of the local administration. The majority of the respondents (60.4%) coupled going to the SCC with other tasks, with 58.6% of them going to a supermarket. Therefore, future SCCs should localized near shopping centres (it would be preferable to have small and numerous SCCs). Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests showed how SCC’s users of the town under study behaved as a community. The percentage of respondents that declared to ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with the idea that only putrescibles and residue could be collected at their home, with all the other materials being collected at the SCC, increased from 56.6%, in 2013, up to 59.0%, in 2015. The percentage of respondents that declared going to the SCC due to environmental motivations was unanimous. Moreover, the saving of money for the community became the second preferred option, with a significant improvement (from 65.6%, in 2013, up to 93.2%, in 2015). Therefore, the community’s interests over the individual’s were privileged. The SCC’s users confirmed their attention to environmental issues even though the local administration changed. It is probable that this could be the result of maintaining high standard of service as well as a good job in terms of communication, continuous involvment of citizens and the adoption of good environmental practices.