JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

The Circular Economy Package, the National Waste Plan and Oulu Waste Management’s own strategy applies pressure to seek ways to improve waste management practices in order to promote sustainability and a more circular approach to waste. This thesis aims to assess the possibilities and to map the different alternatives for increasing municipal solid waste recycling in the operational area of Oulu Waste Management Ltd. The evaluation was based on cost, implementation time and effectiveness estimates. The research question for this thesis is: What are the options for Oulu Waste Management Ltd. to increase MSW recycling rates in its area of operations and what are the estimated costs? Investment calculations were done using the Net Present Value method. Values and information for the calculations as well as other evaluations were acquired from public sources, scientific articles, legislation and interviews. The first part of the thesis focuses on waste legislature and methods for affecting the amount of recoverable waste collected. The second part presents the current situation in the Oulu region and in the Oulu Waste Management operational area as well as the composition of mixed waste in Oulu and Finland. In the third part are presented the source separation methods and factors affecting it. The fourth part is the evaluation of the presented alternatives of the decentralized, centralized and hybrid solutions. The results for this thesis were that the most effective option would be to implement a Mixed Waste Processing Facility in combination especially with biowaste separate collection expansion to include all inhabitants in the Oulu Waste Management area of operations — or in short, a hybrid solution. Other recycling boosting options that would be good to implement with the aforementioned is to encourage detached house neighbourhoods to utilize small scale bring points. Information and public education campaigns would also have to be utilized to ensure proper consumer behaviour. The evaluated cost for the implementation of a Mixed Waste Processing Facility with the required capacity (100 000t/a) in tandem with supporting actions is circa 20M€. These results are to be used as a starting point by Oulu Waste Management to assess possible methods for increasing recycling rate in the Oulu Waste Management operational area in the future. In the process of this thesis, many questions rose regarding the use of recovered waste materials, the practical implementation of alternatives in addition to engaging consumers in source separation activities. As such, this thesis is a good starting point for future research. The results of this thesis are applicable and generalizable to other countries with modern waste management practices.