Municipal solid waste selective collection and tourism

Abstract

This paper concerns the interaction between tourism and the selective collection of municipal solid waste (MSW). Data for an Italian province are shown, zooming in on five municipalities characterised by the high presence of tourists along the year. Information on the selective collection organisation is presented (also based on the presence of eco-centers). The highest tourist months are in winter and summer and their effect is seen in the increase of the factions connected with the tourists meals and also the increase of residual MSW. The monthly peaks of waste generation are very high, but the final results in terms of selective collection efficiency seem to not be affected (being even higher than 80%, a value that is better than the one obtained at provincial scale). Also the presence of decentralised landfills did not discourage the source separation that changed significantly in about a decade. Moreover, the trend of tourists towards shorter periods of holiday does not affect selective collection; possibly because they are used to coming back to the same municipality, where they have already learned the local principles of source separation.