Waste management in mountain refuges - an integrated evaluation

Abstract

Mountain refuges are an excellent example of public stand-alone infrastructures equipped with energy and water supply, and wastewater and waste disposal systems suited to operating under unfavourable conditions, often comprising lengthy distances for transportation or scarce resources. An international project was undertaken to evaluate the existing supply and disposal schemes at 100 mountain refuges both individually and in an integrated manner. On the basis of the results obtained guidelines to be applied in the sustainable planning, construction and operation of supply and disposal systems will be published in the near future. The present article focuses on solid waste management with an aim to the identification, quantification and critical discussion of operational issues and problems relating to waste management in mountain refuges. Transportation represents a crucial factor in terms of costs and climate relevance. The results obtained reveal how waste prevention and composting are capable of reducing waste quantities requiring transportation. However, it was also demonstrated that composting is frequently not performed in an appropriate manner and, although prohibited by law paper and cardboard are frequently burned.

Guideline for Disposal of Residues from Wastewater Treatment in Sensitive Mountain Regions

“…The articles focus on solid waste management with an aim to the identification, quantification and critical discussion of operational issues (procedure and process technology), treatment efficiency (moisture percentage and volume reduction) and problems relating to waste management in mountain refuges. To describe the local disposal situation at alpine huts in Bavaria, elevations and data of previous research projects (e.g., [10][11][12][13][14][15]) were considered.…”

Separate waste collection in mountain municipalities. A case study in Campania

“…Unfortunately, the separate collection process lacks fixed rules and varies according to the characteristics of the local territory. The toughest difficulties arise in mountain areas (Lebersorger et al, 2011;Weissenbacher et al, 2008aWeissenbacher et al, , 2008bWett et al, 2002aWett et al, , 2002b. In particular, the activation of a separate collection process in mountain areas requires to consider a number of constraints: altitude, natural conditions, dispersion and dwelling isolation, tourist presence, type of waste produced, distance from collection points and traffic route conditions (Comunità Europee, 2000).…”

Effect of tourism-generated wastewater on biogenic ions concentrations in stream water in Tatra National Park (Poland)

“…Mountain lodges, such as Murowaniec and Valley of Five Polish Ponds, were equipped with dual treatment systems (Siwek & Biernacki 2015) so they could operate during the tourist season as well as beyond it. According to Lebersorger et al (2010), 6% of operators of refuges in the Alps had technical problems with wastewater treatment systems.…”