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Present
Situation
Research
conducted at the Chañar Ladeado, Chabás and Arequito communes, province
of Santa Fe.
The
study addresses the shortage of information available at the level of
small municipalities. The
trend to simplify accounting procedures, done with a focus on large
expense areas –a generalised practice in this sort of
municipality—generates a minimal amount of information and few
possibilities for activity centred management of costs.
Activity
centred cost management would carry certain advantages to the
municipalities: a) a comprehensive management of cost, b) less distortion
caused when determining service rates and c) improved evaluation of cost
in areas likely to be subject to outsourcing.
This
general absence of information that we mentioned is also present in the
waste collection and disposal system.
The
selected municipalities have implemented a Solid Domestic Waste Productive
Use Plan (in Spanish PUPRSD), with details of the different areas.
It is
important to determine the operative costs of PUPRSD in terms of the
municipalities evaluating the possibility of such implementation, to
streamline the activities of those municipalities that have already
implemented the plan.
The
research will be conducted on solid urban waste, where we will analyse, on
the one hand, the traditional waste collection system –a procedure that
does not classify and just dumps waste in a landfill, in general an
open-sky plot without safety or protection standards.
On the other hand, the research will look into the selective
waste collection system suggested by PUPRSD, involving separate
collection of different types of waste, separating the material where it
is being generated (at household
level), and disposing of it in a treatment plant.
In this case, waste resulting from foodstuffs is subject to
composting and worm farming processes. The resulting organic compost and
the inorganic material obtained are prepared to be commercialised later.
Having
observed and studied the different activities involved in the
above-mentioned areas, the following information was obtained:
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Concept
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Chañar
Ladeado
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Chabás
|
Arequito
|
|
Monthly
collected waste (in tons)
|
152.76
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202.03
|
189.05
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Organic
waste selectively collected every month (in tons)
|
8.72
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11.03
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9.44
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Waste
generated per person, per day, in kilogrammes
|
0.835
|
0.918
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0.897
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Cost
of traditional garbage collection in pesos per ton
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36.44
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27.11
|
24.14
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Cost
of selective collection in pesos per ton
|
138.50
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214.84
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139.32
|
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Cost
of treatment in pesos per ton
|
237.45
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143.46
|
102.86
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To
complement this information, an environmental impact matrix was prepared;
it shows the results of a qualitative assessment of the impact produced by
the treatment plant and the landfill, as a result of a population survey
with samplings from the three municipalities.
Conclusions
The
analysis of the data mentioned and experience gained allowed us to
evaluate the following issues:
The
incidence of the cost of equipment and labour in the total collection
cost, both in the traditional system as in the selective collection
system, is related to the capacity of the equipment.
The three municipalities have a similar situation due to excessive
capacity of equipment and labour.
The
cost of both collection systems can be reduced if waste collection is
scheduled bearing in mind the complete use of volumes available in the
collection vehicles.
In
addition, it is recommendable in the case of selective collection of
waste, to implement actions that stimulate the support of a growing number
of families to the PUPRSD.
In
terms of the Waste Treatment Plant, we will first refer to its operative
capacity. In the three cases
around 10 tons of organic waste are processed every month, although the
total processing capacity is significantly higher.
This shows that the idle capacity of each plant is over 65%.
The cost of keeping this operative capacity idle is critical in the
elaboration of the matrices.
The
alternative of investing in infrastructure is viable as long as the
volumes to be treated increase, as more and more families join the plan.
On the
other hand, the composition of different operation costs shows that the
general maintenance cost and sunk or non-productive costs are a
significant share of the total cost, therefore, streamlining these
activities is decisive in seeking the maximisation of the operative costs
of the treatment plant.
As an
added value to PUPRSD it was observed that in every municipality there are
young people cooperating to generate awareness at the community level.
They are members of non-governmental organisations called “Ecoclubes”
(Ecoclubs).
Despite
the fact that there is a large number of families supporting PUPRSD
in each municipality, as support is voluntary, it may cause
operative distortions that increase the cost of implementation, especially
as both procedures co-exist
Therefore,
even though the policy is to redirect waste going to a landfill and
recover it, it is necessary to strengthen this policy with standards that
allow for the implementation of PUPRSD with a formal schedule and
established conditions; this situation, in turn, would lower the costs
previously shown in this report.
The
Solid Domestic Waste Productive Use Plan (PUPRSD) is a feasible
alternative to address the waste collection and waste treatment problem,
especially in the case of municipalities with profiles such as the ones
described here, as their implementation and operative management are not
too costly.
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