INTEGRATED RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT FOR THE MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE PROVINCE OF SALTA

PLAZA GLORIA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; ISWA 2005 World Congress and Exhibition; 2005

The growth of human activity has lead to an increase of the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), contributing to global warming. The Residential Solid Waste (RSW) disposed at sanitary landfills is a significant methane (CH4) generator. Since 1977, in Argentina, sanitary landfills have been distributed throughout the country representing a potential generation of 617 Gg of CH4 (Review of GHG Emissions Inventory, Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development, SayDS, 1999). That amount corresponds to 5% of the overall accounted sectors, rated third in importance. It is estimated that in the following years this percentage will rise due to population growth and to technological changes -devoted to mitigation- applied in the remaining and more pollutant sectors (energy, stockbreeding and agribusiness). The province of Salta consists of a large population group of more than 1.000.000 inhabitants distributed in 59 municipalities. These districts have diverse environmental characteristics and population density, which should be considered when analizing the technological alternatives intended to capture and/or exploit the CH4 generated by RSW within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol already in force. In the present study, a methodology is applied for the appraisal and decision-making of the different proposed alternatives concerning RSW integrated management . The analyisis is performed within a framework of hierarchical management, considering the particular characteristics of the different communities for the establishment of a top-quality waste management. The variables analized include the following:  population, weather, soil and energy availability, labor, equipment, among others. Socio-cultural and institutional aspects were taken into account as well. As a result of this study, it may be concluded that the Sanitary Landfill conventional technology in its two alternatives (mechanical and manual) should be developed throughout the whole province, gradually incorporating Semi-Dry Anaerobic Treatment of the Organic Fraction (OF) from its seggregation at source. Likewise,  there is a proposal for the municipalities with a high popluation density to incorporate medium complexity anaerobic biotechnologies for OF treatment purposes. However, for those districts with a medium-sized population density it is advised that they use Anaerobic Treatment Mobile Units for treating OF. This latter case shows high management efficiency in small communities, demonstrated by scientific assays at laboratory scale, supporting the implementation of the mentioned regional technology. The appropriate RSW management in the province of Salta represents an interesting proposal in terms of a regional project aimed at climate change mitigation.