Characterization of solid waste from the urban parishes of the Loreto canton, Province of Orellana

Abstract

In Ecuador, the comprehensive management of urban solid waste is an action that still represents enormous challenges, becoming the country's main problem with the greatest environmental impact, generating greenhouse gases specifically in the cantons where they do not have a landfill for its final disposal, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador and the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (AME, INEC 2022), an average of 14,394 tons of solid waste per day are collected in the country, 54.5% of the Governments Municipalities dispose of this waste in landfills, 28.2% in emerging cells and 17.3% in open-air dumps. The objective of this problem was to carry out a characterization study of solid waste in the urban parishes of the canton. Loreto, province of Orellana, generated from household, non-domestic and special sources, applying methodology and materials, with a focus on a descriptive, historical-logical, qualitative, quantitative level, based on a series of technical guides established by the Ministry of the Environment of Peru (MINAM, 2019) and by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), which resulted in the physical composition that registered a value of 63.12%, data corresponding to usable organic matter, while that 24.40% are usable and reusable inorganic products and 12.48% represent unusable inorganic waste, the density was 19445.23 kilograms per day and the volume is equivalent to a total of 19.45 tons/day of solid waste and in conclusion it was determined that the Per capita production was calculated by 0.69 kilograms per day per inhabitant. These data were estimated for a population of 28,108 inhabitants until 2023 in the Loreto canton.