A clean destination
No government has a solution in place for the proper processing of waste streams at tourist destinations with growing numbers of visitors. The EU Urban Waste programme is taking stock of the possibilities.
Europe has many popular tourist destinations. Not only the always popular destinations like Paris and Barcelona, but also sunshine destinations and sometimes unexpectedly crowded places, like the Dutch village of Giethoorn, nowadays a 'must see' for Asian tourists. Some destinations have to cope with such a large flow of tourists that in inhabitants are demonstrating against this nuisance. "One of the problems is that visitors leave behind a lot of waste that needs to be collected and processed in one way or another," says OTB researcher Arie Romein. "And don’t forget waste that restaurants generate because tourists come to eat with them. Food is the largest component of solid waste, especially in the tourism sector.” Romein is involved in the European Union's URBAN WASTE project, which aims to support policymakers in waste management in finding the best possible treatment of solid waste, preferably by means of reuse or recycling and as little as possible in the form of landfill, the most polluting form of waste disposal. Among other things, studies are under way on appropriate collection strategies in large tourist cities. This should be followed by strategies to promote the re-use of this waste. Eleven pilot sites - including Copenhagen, Florence, Lisbon, the Nice region, the island of Tenerife and the Dubrovnic region - are working together with research institutes, including Delft University of Technology, to carry out this research. The participating locations differ in size, location and climate and attract different groups of tourists.
Waste data and indirect data
The research used tourist data on the one hand and waste data on the other. However, both groups of information are far from complete. "The data also vary greatly from one municipality to another," says Romein. "Sometimes we have to rely on regional or even national data. No country has a policy on the prevention of waste generation by the tourism sector. At most, the municipalities participating in the survey have data on gross waste streams and not on disaggregated data for residents and tourists. This does not make it easy to determine the extent to which visitors contribute to the generation of waste in tourist towns. Without data, it will also be difficult to measure the effectiveness of measures in the future.
On average, the total amount of waste from the participating cities in the study decreased by 15% in eight years, a trend which runs counter to the growth of tourism. Some cities contributed a great deal to this, while others contributed little to nothing. In a few cities, the volume of waste increased again after a decline. There is also clear evidence in all participating countries that the amount of waste going to landfills is decreasing and that greater attention is being paid to recycling. Taxes and reduction schemes such as LIFE PAYT in southern Europe seem to be contributing to this. In practice, however, a difference can still be seen between countries in northern and southern Europe. In northern Europe, a higher proportion of waste is reused and recycled than in southern European countries.
Indirect data
One possibility for further mapping of the production of solid waste by tourism is to use the turnover generated by tourism. Romein: "Some of the participants were able to provide these figures. Alternative dates for determining the size of the tourist industry are the number of beds in tourist accommodation per thousand inhabitants. This number has increased modestly, but evenly, over the last 15 years. Data on employment in tourism can also be used as indicators of the contribution of tourism to the generation of waste. These are indirect data. According to Romein, a good approach to mapping out the influence of tourism on waste production would be to measure separately collected catering waste on a monthly basis over a long period of time. "This approach is feasible, for example, by working with garbage bags in several colours.”
More information
Website URBAN WASTE: Urban strategies for Waste Management in Tourist Cities
Contact: Arie Romein