Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Transport Vehicles: Case Study Banja Luka Region (B&H)

Waste transport is just one of the segments in the solid municipal waste management. Throughout the entire waste life cycle, starting by generation of waste, via storing, collecting, transporting, recycling, treating and depositing, several different polluting substances are emitted. The solid waste transport, apropos, transporting vehicles emit into the air different pollution substances such as CO₂, CO, NO_x, NMVOC, PM, PAHs etc. These substances can present certain problems for human health and environment. The research subject of this study is the analysis of solid waste transportation within the Banja Luka region (B&H), from towns and municipalities belonging to the region and transporting their mixed municipal waste to the Banja Luka landfill. In the analysis, following parameters are included: distance to the landfill, type of vehicle used for the waste transportation, type of the engine, vehicle capacity and the number of tours during a year. The study estimates the emission of CO, NO_x, NMVOC, and PM2.5 during one year using the listed parameters and by applying EMEP/EEA guidelines for estimating the emission of polluting substances into the air. The largest emission of polluting substances (CO, NO_x, NMVOC and PM2.5) is from the oldest vehicles. The newest vehicles had a significantly lesser emission of these polluting substances into the air. The recommendation for decreasing the emission from the transportation vehicles is to organise the transfer-stations, procure new vehicles, optimise the collection routes and decrease the number of tours, as well as to better the usage of the vehicle capacity level.