Municipal solid waste management in Italian and Romanian tourist areas

Tourism is a great source of employment and income in the economies of many regions, but also a source of environmental impacts. The main consequences are the increase of generation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and the effects in their management. The tourist presence affects the territory in terms of amount produced of MSW, but also of quality of Selective Collection (SC). In this paper three case studies are analysed in order to see the possible criticality in waste management about these areas and also taking into account strategies of energy recovery from Residual Municipal Solid Waste (RMSW). The case studies concern a tourist area in the North of Italy and one in the South of Italy, while another one in a Romanian region. In the summer season (June-August) the increase in waste production is clearly visible according to the Italian data. The opposite behaviour is observed for percentage of SC. The tourists’ behaviour influences negatively the SC's efficiency, above all in the South Italy case.