Practical Improvement Scenarios for an Innovative Waste-Collection Recycling Program Operating with Mobile Green Points (MGPs)

Abstract

Since 2021, the prefectural authorities of the Attica Region in Greece have been operating a rewarding recycling program for the collection of clean recyclable waste in collaboration with the “Specialist Integrated Association of the Prefecture of Attica” (EDSNA, in Greek) and private contractors, called “THE GREEN CITY”. This program mobilizes almost 30 mobile green points (MGPs) daily, which are self-propelled trucks that collect clean recyclable materials from citizens and businesses across the Attica Region. After one year of operation, this program has shown promising results, having more than 100,000 registered citizens and having already collected over 500 tons of clean recyclable municipal solid wastes in more than 60 municipalities of Attica. However, these promising results are accompanied by some significant financial and environmental costs. This study presents two different practical improvement scenarios for THE GREEN CITY recycling program’s current situation that ensure (a) the shortening of the annual kilometers and time on the remote routes of all programs, (b) the annual fuel-cost decrease for the MGPs and (c) the annual reduction of their CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Afterwards, we compare these two scenarios and conclude that the “first improvement scenario with main depot decentralization” is more realistic, feasible and has a bigger total sum of positive impacts than the second one. Therefore, this study strongly suggests the implementation of the “first improvement scenario with main depot decentralization” and opens the road to future improvement scenarios for various waste-management systems or recycling programs.