Proposal of a circular model for the management of usable waste in low-income municipalities in Colombia

PROPOSAL OF A CIRCULAR MODEL FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF USABLE WASTE IN LOW-INCOME MUNICIPALITIES IN COLOMBIA

 Camilo-A. Vargas-Terranova ¹, Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri ², María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero ², Paula-A. Bustos-Castro³

¹  Programa de Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria, Universidad de La Salle, Carrera 2 # 10-70, Piso 6-Bloque A, 111711, Bogotá, Colombia; cvterranova@unisalle.edu.co

²   Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), 46022 Valencia, Spain; jrodrigo@upv.es; marodcla@upv.es

³   Quipus Consultores SAS, Carrera 8 # 16-36, 250010, Cota, Colombia; paula288bc@gmail.com

 

Waste reuse is a main activity included in the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) system in Colombia. However, the economic costs related with these activities are not usually included within the service fee. Therefore, operators who perform reuse activities are not formalized or legally constituted and they do not always find a significant economic benefit. This on-going research raises a proposal for a circular model for usable waste in order to add value to the different stages that make up the recovery activity, generating social and environmental benefits.

The circular economy model for the reuse of waste has five phases: i) solid waste generation; ii) solid waste collection; iii) classification of solid waste in collection centers; iv) delivery to an external manager and v) reinstatement to the production chain, to finally return to the first stage.

The financial analysis of the circular economy model is also divided into five phases. In the first phase a basic calculation is made as a reference on the cost of the operation of the public cleaning service, the staff payment cost, the operation of the vehicle fleet and the cost of final waste disposal. In the second and third phases, two scenarios are raised regarding the state of the collection center in a municipality. Specifically, in the second phase, the scenario of a municipality that does not have a collection center or classification and utilization station is proposed. The investment in locating, adapting and building a collection center with different sizes is calculated. In the third phase, a scenario is proposed where a municipality already has a collection center, so the investment for its operation is calculated.

In the fourth phase, the scenarios proposed with the reference value are evaluated. Also, the behavior of production of usable waste and the fluctuation of values in the purchase and sale of this waste in low-income municipalities are determined.

Finally, in the fifth phase, a synthesis of the economic valuation is made, evaluating the scenarios for the municipalities, determining the amount of income and expenses.