Indicator analysis of integrated municipal waste management system. Case study of Latvia

Inadequate waste management, associated with dominance of waste landfilling and low resource recovery efficiency, is the major challenge some European Union countries, incl. Latvia, face. Several legal instruments, such as the European Council Directive 1999/31/EC "Landfill Directive", Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council "Waste Framework Directive" are oriented towards increasing the recycling and re-use of waste, thereby reducing waste landfilling [1]. The aim of the study is to carry out an indicator analysis for the Latvian household waste management sector, assessing the potential of material and energy recovery, as well as setting cost indicators related to these activities. The results of the study show that the potential of material and energy recovery from municipal waste is in the range of 3 % to 15 % but the average costs for waste collection, recycling and landfilling is 16.73 euro per tonne of municipal waste. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.