Exploring Solid Waste Management Scenarios for the Old Royal Capital Cetinje in Montenegro

摘要

Municipal solid waste management is one of the most important environmental challengesin urban areas. In order to develop EU-standard integrated sustainable solid waste management inthe city of Cetinje (Montenegro), various options for source-segregation and selective collection ofrecyclable waste fractions were considered and managerial and technical options for handling theseactivities were assessed. The assessment included three main options: (1) source separation and sepa- rate collection of dry recyclable materials and central sorting of residual waste; (2) source separationand collection of co-mingled dry recyclable materials and central sorting in a clean material recoveryfacility (MRF) of comingled recyclables - and central sorting of residual waste; (3) Collection ofmixed waste (business as usual) and subsequent central sorting.The first scenario served to analyse the consequence of having separate collection of source separatedmaterials with no subsequent fine sorting at a clean MRF and to analyse/comment on quality and valueof the recyclable materials being collected and sold to the recycling industry. The second scenarioanalysed the consequence of having collection of co-mingled source separated materials with subsequentfine sorting at a clean MRF including the mass flow analyses involving different sorting efficienciesat households depending on type of collection (kerbside or drop off). The last scenario attendedto analyse the consequence of having no separate collection of source separated materials andinstead just collecting the mixed waste from the households. The last scenario also served to analyse/comment on quality and value of the recyclable materials being collected and sold to the recyclingindustry after sorting at the plant to be built.From the waste flow calculations it was seen that Scenario 1 and 2 ultimately will result in a total recyclingrate of around 65% compared to Scenario 3 having 45% recycling rate in 2034. Recycling ofbio-waste is contributing with around 23% leaving a recycling rate of 42% for the dry recyclable materialsin Scenario 1 and 2 and 22% in Scenario 3. Scenario 1 and 2 was found to meet the EU 50%recycling target in 2023 conditioned a speedy implementation of the new separate collection schemeswith or without construction of a new MRF to fine sort the co-mingled collected recyclable materials.Scenario 3; according to the estimates made, will not be able to meet this target. A continuation ofthis present situation would not fulfil the future EU requirement/recycling targets. Lastly, a financialevaluation was made for the options and the investment and operational costs for each scenario over a20 year period have been calculated. Unit investment and operational costs for Scenario 3 were foundto be lower than for Scenario 1 and 2. On the other hand, the costs in Scenario 1 were higher thanScenario 2, which is due to high investment and operational costs for the extended collection services.Separate collection of single source separated materials is expensive and involves purchase of manycontainers and emptying of same. Knowing that Scenario 3 will not meet the future EU recycling targets,Scenario 2 has been pointed as the most feasible scenario for Cetinje owing to the expected lowertotal costs compared to Scenario 1. The major reason for the lower total costs of Scenario 2 wasthat those of Scenario 1 are lower collection costs and higher revenue from sale of recyclable materials.