Could door-to-door waste collection be the answer to Romania’s waste problems? Cultures and places vastly differ all over the world. Just like for everything else, when it comes to waste collection, we cannot say that there is a universal solution that fits every town, city, or the behavior of its residents.
There are countless waste collection systems that have proven to be efficient in one part of the world but, when implemented in another region they have not produced the same beneficial results. This was the case in Hernani, a town located in the Basque Country of Spain.For many years, the city had a voluntary recycling system based on the German model. People could dispose of their recyclables in four large containers placed in centralized areas in neighborhoods (like the systems we currently have in most of Romanian communities). This way of collecting waste has proved to be efficient in countries where communities have an established history and knowledge regarding recycling, but in the case of Hernani most of the city’s waste ended up in the landfill, regardless of the effort. The locals realized that they had to devise a system that would fit their needs and behavior.
They implemented a door-to-door system dividing waste into different streams. Each stream had an assigned day of collection: Organics being collected on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays; light packaging on Mondays and Thursdays; paper and cardboard on Tuesdays; and residuals on Saturdays. They replaced large containers with small bins and totem poles that have a designated hook for every household in the community. Each bin and hook has a code that identifies the household that uses it. This allows the authorities to monitor recycling separately and offer solutions where problems arise. Only one year after the implementation of the new system the municipality landfilled53.8% less waste than the previous year.
Last week the Circulo team visited ECOBIHOR a waste collection and management company from Oradea. The company is at the forefront of implementing a system like the one seen in Hernani, but here in our home country of Romania. After they implemented the new system in Sălacea they reduced the generated waste by 55%, and the selective collecting rate increased from1% to 61%.Specialists from their sorting facility can clearly distinguish incoming streams that use the door-to-door collection as opposed to the old container system. Waste coming from centralized containers most of the time is separated poorly and must go through a much more comprehensive sorting process. As a wise man once said: “The collective mistake is nobody’s mistake.”
As we saw firsthand there is a lot of hard work that goes into recycling and WE (the community)have an integral role in it. The success of the process is highly dependent on our methods of disposing waste. This is where the door-to-door system could bring benefits for our situation, offering people the chance to learn and be responsible for their own personal waste.
IF you want to read more about Hernani’s waste management system click here https://ecobihor.ro/.../Studiu-de-caz-Zero-Waste-Salacea.pdf
IF you want to read more about ECOBIHOR’s case study click here https://ecobihor.ro/.../Studiu-de-caz-Zero-Waste-Salacea.pdf
great job!