It's overall accepted that without new initiatives, waste
volumes are projected to continue to rise in the foreseeable
future. In addition to requiring valuable space, the management
of wastes releases numerous pollutants to air, water and
soil including greenhouse gas emissions from landfills and
waste transportation. Waste also represents a loss of valuable
resources, many of which are scarce and could be recovered
and recycled to help us reduce our demand for virgin raw
materials.
The 6th Environment Action program considers as a specific
"priority" waste stream the biodegradable household
waste and it states that a Legislative initiative must be
developed in order to treat the municipal wastes in a different
way than land filling.
The key to achieving both high diversion rates from landfill
and high reuse, recycling and composting rates, appears
to be the provision of widespread separate collection facilities,
together with the availability of adequate markets for the
materials collected.
Through the COMWASTE project all the aforementioned issues
will be confronted by developing and implementing an innovative
system for separate collection and composting at source
in the Attica region of Athens - Greece.
The project perfectly matches the overall targets of Greece
on waste prevention and increased recycling since the project
is expected to demonstrate and document the separate collection
and composting at source and can lead to significant reduction
in the quantity of waste going to final disposal.
The main technical and scientific coordinator of the project
is NTUA while three Municipalities of Attica region are
quite involved in the project: Municipality of Kifissia,
Municipality of Nea Halkidona and Municipality of Acharnes.
The project is being carried out in an appropriate pilot
scale in order to demonstrate and document the feasibility
of separate collection and composting at source. It consists
of 8 tasks and it will last 27 months.
Aim of the project
The successful diversion of biodegradable wastes from landfill
relies on the separation of these wastes at source. Whilst
the biodegradable fraction can be extracted from mixed wastes,
this is laborious and produces a contaminated product. Separation
at source offers the opportunity of a high - quality clean
feedstock for composting and the prospect of an uncontaminated
product.
A "clean" waste collected via separate collection
is more likely to meet compost standards and be suitable
for sale or use, bringing associated environmental benefits.
Use of the compost end product offsets the requirement for
other soil conditioners, such as peat, in agricultural and
garden uses.
Separation of biodegradable wastes at source also allows
for the promotion of home composting or composting within
small, local communities. The compostable fraction of waste
is often one of the most polluting of the waste stream,
and implementing such a scheme diverts waste from the traditional
disposal routes such as incineration and landfill. As one
of the largest fractions of household waste, diverting organic
waste from landfill can also significantly contribute to
meeting local recycling targets.
The system that will be developed will be based on the
simultaneous biodegradation and stabilization of the household
organic fraction. Also it will be characterized by flexibility,
convenience in using and capability to treat small quantities
of waste in short time period, at households. The specific
means for the design of the system such as additive materials,
type of microorganisms, demands in warm air etc. will be
set after thoroughly examination of all the alternative
technologies and according to the needs and characteristics
of the households under concern.
This will be the first attempt in Greece to establish such
a system for simultaneous collection - composting at source
and the working group will try to develop an effective,
suitable and operational system and scheme in order to be
the basis of a full-scale introduction in other areas in
the country. The design and development of a new prototype
system will include all state - of - the - art notions and
ideas in respect to technological and scientific aspects.
