Abstract

The in-depth knowledge of the relationship between the various stakeholders involved in the recovery and valorization of urban solid wastes (USW) allows increasing their use rate, hence reducing the volume of materials disposed of in final landfills - often improperly. This work reports a methodological approach that, through the application of basic spatial analysis concepts including location, distribution and links, describes the functional relationship between informal collection centers of materials recovered from USW and treatment/valorization companies, with the State of Mexico as case study. The methodology reported includes a general structure suggested for the drafting of questionnaire formats to gather information on source-destination of valorized materials, the construction and validation of a geo-spatial database, and proposes a source-destination connectivity indicator for valorized materials based on shipping time, to assess the spatial relationships between the stakeholders involved in solid waste management. The proposed methodology resulted in a connectivity map of the stakeholders considered, which reveals the absence of any spatial behavior patterns aiming to optimize this interrelation, and reveals the existence of political and economic variables that should be considered to broaden this analysis.