Modelling fuel consumption in kerbside source segregated food waste collection: separate collection and co-collection

Source separated food waste is a valuable feedstock for renewable energy production through anaerobic digestion, and a variety of collection schemes for this material have recently been introduced. The aim of this study was to identify options that maximize collection efficiency and reduce fuel consumption as part of the overall energy balance. A mechanistic model was developed to calculate the fuel consumption of kerbside collection of source segregated food waste, co-mingled dry recyclables and residual waste. A hypothetical city of 20,000 households was considered and nine scenarios were tested with different combinations of collection frequencies, vehicle types and waste types. The results showed that the potential fuel savings from weekly and fortnightly co-collection of household waste range from 7.4% to 22.4% and 1.8% to 26.6%, respectively, when compared to separate collection. A compartmentalized vehicle split 30:70 always performed better than one with two compartments of equal size. Weekly food waste collection with alternate weekly collection of the recyclables and residual waste by two-compartment collection vehicles was the best option to reduce the overall fuel consumption.