Recovery of solid waste at Costa Rica Institute of Technology 15 years after the creation of the permanent activity Institutional Waste Management MADI

Abstract

An analysis of the generation of the waste produced at the Central Campus of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology was carried out, both, for the materials recovered by the Institutional Collection Center (MADI), as well as for the waste sent to the landfill. The amounts of the recoverable materials were provided by MADI. Literature references were used to count the quantities of organic waste from the Institutional Restaurant. The amount of waste sent to the landfill were obtained through a composition study during the first semester of 2013 and 2014, based on the methodology recommended by the Costa Rica Ministry of Health (MINSA). The waste types of this methodology were simplified into three categories: recoverable, compostable and non-recoverable. 50 % of the transfer stations of waste sent to landfill were chosen. The composition study was carried out on samples that varied between 23.3 and 73.4 % of the total mass of waste from the chosen transfer stations. It was found that from the total waste sent to the landfill (60 ± 1) % were not recoverable, while (29 ± 2) % and (12 ± 1) % were recoverable by MADI or compostable, respectively. For 2015, MADI recovered 63% of the total waste with recyclable potential of the total institutional waste stream, and the Restaurant 66% of total food waste. However, the institute must work on a strategy that can improve the performance of the integral management of institutional solid waste.