Plastic waste management in agriculture through a GIS-based territory design approach

An integrated methodology for managing the agricultural plastic waste flow using analytical hierarchy process and geographic information system was implemented. The Italian province of Bari, with a surface of 3825 km2, was considered as case study. Two scenarios were analysed: with and without intermediate collection centres. Plastic waste indices were defined and applied to land use maps to estimate and map waste. Ten environmental, social and techno-economic criteria were considered for defining suitability. Data were integrated into a geographic information system for territorial analyses, considering the routes over the roads network. The suitability map for collection centres siting was obtained, the results showed that the situation without collection centres could be improved by interposing them. Waste path lengths and related CO2 emissions were reduced by 62 % and 20 %, respectively, in the scenario with intermediate collection centres.