Graça Martinho

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Full) at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

The textile industry is one of the largest worldwide and also one responsible for important environmental impacts. In this context, it is mandatory for European Member States to implement municipal schemes for the separate collection of textile waste by January 2025. The municipality of Cascais, in Portugal, was selected as a case study to determin...

The Deposit and Refund System (DRS) has demonstrated its effectiveness as a powerful economic instrument to help to achieve the European targets for packaging waste recycling, whilst simultaneously ensuring the collection of higher-quality materials for the production of new beverage bottles. In Portugal, a pilot DRS project focusing on polyethylen...

Countries that have a Deposit and Refund System (DRS) show high rates of selective beverage packaging waste collection, indicating that it is a powerful economic instrument for achieving the European packaging recycling targets. DRS ensure that collected material is of a sufficiently high quality to be incorporated into new products. In Portugal, t...

Selective demolition (or deconstruction) is important for achieving efficient circular principles in the construction sector, involving various stakeholders in the whole life cycle of buildings. Several studies have been conducted in recent years about it, but an assessment concerning the stakeholders involved was never undertaken to explore the cr...

Achieving a broad analysis of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management without considering local scale dynamics, and its detailed characteristics, is a constraint that has made it challenging to optimally engage in an integrated assessment of the circular economy principles in the construction sector. In this sense, this research demonstr...

On a local scale, municipalities often incur high costs as a result of the illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste (CDW), due to gaps in awareness and training, a lack of adequate oversight actions or infrastructure and equipment. Moreover, there is a loss of resources, failing to close the loop of the circular economy. Six participato...

A project connecting 11 partners from Portugal (8), Norway (1), Czech Republic (1), and Romania (1), funded by the EEA Grants mechanism, and focusing on promoting the circular economy principles in the construction sector. Developed in the Baixo Alentejo region, in Portugal, composed of 13 municipalities, in a rural area, with a lack of CDW managem...

Addressing the illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste (CDW) is challenging because there are significant costs associated with clean-up actions but, for many local authorities, no data is available to describe this reality and to support the decision-making process. This research is focused on how to study the dynamic of CDW dumpsites...

European citizens believe they can play a role in protecting the environment through changes in how they buy, consume, and separate waste, but they also believe they are not doing enough. Household refrigerating appliances, such as refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioning systems (at home or in the car), impact severely global warming due to t...

Compliance with the international agreements and regulations aiming at mitigating emissions of gases with high global warming potential (GWP) requires the involvement of all stakeholders in the value chain of equipment containing refrigeration gases. In particular, the technicians dealing with the installation, maintenance, and dismantling of refri...

Waste management is currently facing multiple challenges worldwide. The population growth in urban areas and related environmental concerns have increased the need to promote urban sustainability, namely where urban waste is a challenge. Thus, research on efficient waste management to reduce resources overload and to develop more sustainable produc...

For a circular economy approach in the construction sector, it is important to understand the value of using recycled materials in buildings and other constructions, reducing the extraction of natural resources, as well as the generation of construction and demolition waste. The role of construction companies is relevant in the sense that they are...

For a circular economy approach in the construction sector, it is important to understand the value of using recycled materials in buildings and other constructions, reducing the extraction of natural resources, but also the generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW). The role of construction companies is relevant in the sense that they...

Due to the relevance of construction and demolition waste (CDW) generation for circular economy and reduction of environmental impacts, it is important to evaluate the factors leading to constraints regarding waste. Previous researchers have assessed construction company attitudes and behaviors toward CDW management, but factors such as the presenc...

Due to the relevance of construction and demolition waste (CDW) generation for circular economy and reduction of environmental impacts, it is important to evaluate the factors leading to constraints regarding waste management. Previous researchers have assessed construction company attitudes and behaviors toward CDW management, but factors such as...

Moisture content is a quality issue raised by recycling plants in the acceptance of paper and cardboard coming from waste streams. The current way to measure this parameter is by the oven drying method, which is a slow and invasive process, costing time and resources for the recyclers to do this type of quality control. An alternative to such a mea...

Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) are used for various applications, such as in refrigeration and air conditioning, as substitutes of the ozone-depleting substances. Their utilization has increased drastically over the last few decades, with serious consequences for global warming. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and several nati...

The aim of current European Union waste management directives is to promote prevention of waste and the application of a waste management hierarchy: preparing for reuse, recycling, other recovery, and disposal. The Waste Framework Directive only measures the waste operations recycling, incineration, and landfill individually, not measuring the impl...

The way how policy instruments and actions can impose measures before products became waste depends on policies based on the waste prevention, reduction, and reuse. A brief review on the concepts in the light of the waste hierarchy principle is discussed, considering the view of European countries and when possible from other countries in the world...

In a sustainable waste collection and management system, the economic component is traditionally an imperative factor for the decisions and justifications of all operations. The calculation of the cost and revenue components associated with waste collection systems must be taken into account and analyzed from an integrated waste management perspect...

Strategies have been applied to encourage recycling behavior, which is the most participative component of the integrated waste management, where the citizens are the key to ensure the success of a separate waste collection system. A short review of the most studied variables and factors involved in the study of consumption and recycling behavior i...

The planning of collection routes in a waste cooking oil system is studied in this chapter. The problem is modeled as a multi-depot vehicle routing problem with mixed closed and open routes. This is to mean that all routes start at one depot but can end at the same or at a different one, depending on what minimizes the decision-maker goal (cost, di...

The ultimate challenge that solid waste management needs to comply in the future is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The adoption of the agenda by the United Nations in 2016 intends to transform the way how the world has evolved. Seventeen goals decomposed in 169 targets are listed to ensure a better world for all, with poverty alleviat...

Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is concerned with theory and methodology that can deal with complex problems encountered in sustainable waste management. It provides methodologies to support decision-makers when selecting the best compromise among a set of alternative characterized by different and conflicting criteria. The top five methods...

Solid waste management requires specific rules to ensure the collection and management respecting the citizens and the environment. A brief review on how solid waste management is defined by international and national regulations is provided. The intention is to cover broader waste streams from municipal solid waste, including batteries and accumul...

This chapter discusses the concept of the integrated waste collection that could bring the collection operational unit of the integrated solid waste management into the center of it. The integrated waste collection concept is based on the operational units existing in the waste management system, having in mind the waste hierarchy principle and the...

Solid waste collection and its management are an increasing issue in cities in the future, where the urban population is still growing and consumption patterns are changing all the time. Strategies implemented at developed countries to solve waste collection and management issues are different from developing countries, and those differences need t...

This chapter focuses on one of the most used OR techniques which is optimization with linear programming modeling. This technique suits many problems faced when designing and operating a sustainable solid waste system. Single and multiple objective problems will be presented, and some OR special problems will be described with detail (the traveling...

To make waste collection desirable, waste collection paradigm needs to change in such way that could promote waste hierarchy and circular economy. Reverse logistics, crowd logistics, physical Internet, and Freight on Transit are innovative solutions applied to waste, sub-products, and end-of-life products capable of bringing the change to the waste...

Today’s environmental concerns are related to the population and its consumption of resources, which have led to significant ecological global changes, such as climate change and resources overexploitation. The solid waste management, in an integrated way, has been capable of influencing and contributing to the solution of such challenges. The purp...

The increasing rate of waste production per capita, the technological advances in packaging products, and the new waste policy and the legal provisions adopted in developed countries created a constant change in the set of parameters that determine the design of solutions for integrated waste management, where waste collection plays a fundamental r...

The activities related with the waste collection and how they impact on the waste management systems need to be conducted in a sustainable and efficient way. The waste collection needs to be affordable for users, although respecting all regulations applicable to the waste collection, with low environmental impact and respecting workers. Efficient c...

The less useful operations in accordance to waste hierarchy principle will be driven in this section. Reusing, recycling, treating, and landfilling are all operation options for waste, which need to be considered regarding its impact on the environment and how their management can potentiate a better use of resources. A brief review on the concepts...

The purpose of this chapter is to present the principal factors and objectives to consider when planning a collection system. The prediction and estimation of the amount of waste and the type of waste collection service that is intended to be provided, together with the help of geographic information systems (GIS) to locate containers and design ro...

This chapter presents a real case study of a recyclable waste collection system aiming at redesigning service areas and associated vehicle collection routes to support a sustainable operation. Not only economic objectives are to be considered, but also one should account for environmental and social aspects. The economic dimension is modeled throug...

Today’s environmental concerns are related to the population and its consumption of resources, which have led to significant environmental and global changes, such as climate change and resource overexploitation. The solid waste management, in an integrated way, has been capable of influencing and contributing to the solution of such challenges. Th...

This volume focuses on the collection of waste and waste streams as an integral aspect of sustainable waste management. The authors take economic models and behavioral studies into account to go beyond just descriptions of waste collections technologies and collection route design. Models and tools for sustainable waste collection are described in...

This book was inadvertently published without updating the following corrections: The chapter title in chapters 5 and 7 have the same names.

O setor da construção gera cerca de 10% do produto interno bruto e é responsável pela criação de 20 milhões de postos de trabalho na economia europeia, sendo que nos últimos anos, devido à crise económica, as obras de reabilitação alcançaram maior relevância. O setor contribui para 50% da extração de todos os materiais virgens, 35% da emissão de ga...

Neste relatório apresentam-se os resultados obtidos das campanhas de caracterização realizadas à composição física dos monos e aos circuitos de recolha de monos no município de Cascais, focando a análise nos REEE, e acompanhados de uma análise crítica. Relativamente à campanha de caracterização da composição física dos monos, as tarefas desenvolvid...

Research on waste prevention and management at green festivals is scarce. The present study helps to fill this gap by analyzing waste prevention/reduction and management measures implemented at the Andanças festival, Portugal. Waste characterization campaigns and a questionnaire survey were conducted during the festival. The results show that the l...

A better understanding of how smartphones and tablets are managed at the end of their life cycle is needed to achieve higher recycling and reuse rates. The goals of this study were to obtain the current consumption (acquisition and use) and recycling rates of smartphones and tablets from an exploratory online survey implemented in Portugal, and to...

The need to increase packaging recycling rates has led to the study and analysis of recycling schemes from various perspectives, including technical, economic, social, and environmental. This paper is part one of a three-part study devoted to comparing two recyclable packaging waste collection systems operating in western Portugal: a mixed collecti...

Marine litter from lightweight plastic bags is a global problem that must be solved. A plastic bag tax was implemented in February 2015 to reduce the consumption of plastic grocery bags in Portugal and in turn reduce the potential contribution to marine litter. This study analyzes the effect of the plastic bag tax on consumer behavior to learn how...

An understanding of the environmental impacts and costs related to waste collection is needed to ensure that existing waste collection schemes are the most appropriate with regard to both environment and cost. This paper is Part II of a three-part study of a mixed packaging waste collection system (curbside plus bring collection). Here, the mixed c...

Waste collection systems have been assessed to understand their performance, but most indicators used are related to economic and environmental aspects and omit indicators related to the technology aspects of containers and vehicles. In this study, 12 indicators were developed to characterize the technological aspect of 22 waste collection systems...

Landfill mining in Portugal had only been started in the last recent years. In 2006 it was published the Intervention Plan for Municipal Solid and Similar Wastes, which intended to solve the existing problems in solid waste management. In this legal document it was foreseen the landfill mining activity of closed sanitary landfills or closed cells,...

Waste collection systems are a relevant component of solid waste management systems implemented worldwide. Although relevant to the success of waste management, the development of waste collection systems has been disorganized and dissimilar. Lack of a common definition and characterization of waste collection systems and components has complicated...

Extended producer responsibility in the European Union has been shown to be incapable of promoting environmentally friendly packaging, mainly because of the economic instrument used: the producer fee. To make the producer fee capable of both reflecting and influencing how packaging is produced, we propose a mathematical model for calculating a diff...

In 2008, Portuguese national legislation was created to regulate construction and demolition waste (CDW). The present work intends to show how CDW management has been conducted in Portugal since then. To do so, a case study at the North Interior Region of Portugal was selected to be analyzed. The work was conducted during 2012 and the methodology i...

Aims: The study analyzes the carbon footprint of the waste oil management system operating in Portugal to ensure the sustainable operation in the future. The analysis was carried out in 2011for the system that is composed of a treatment procedure collecting the treated oil for re-refining, followed by the production of expanded clay and recycling f...

Purpose This paper compares 16 waste lubricant oil (WLO) systems (15 management alternatives and a system in use in Portugal) using a life cycle assessment (LCA). The alternatives tested use various mild processing techniques and recovery options: recycling during expanded clay production, recycling and electric energy production, re-refining, ener...

Mining dumps and landfills involves the excavation, separation and treatment of various components of the waste that was deposited in old dumps and landfills, with advantages for the management of natural resources and environmental conservation. The analysis of a possible landfill mining in Portugal concerning forecasting evaluation of materials e...

This paper describes a direct analysis study carried out in a recycling unit for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Portugal to characterize the plastic constituents of WEEE. Approximately 3400 items, including cooling appliances, small WEEE, printers, copying equipment, central processing units, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors and...

Recent challenges in solid waste management in Europe are intimately tied to the fulfillment of the prescribed targets of recycling and organic waste recovery in response to the requirements of European Directives. Challenges with characterizing and propagating uncertainty, and validating predictions permeate decision making. In order to retrieve t...

In this chapter, a set of performance indicators (e.g. environmental, economic, operational, human resources, service quality and opinion) for MSW landfills’ leachate treatment and management are defined and proposed. Considering the Portuguese case, a background on national MSW landfill and leachate management is given. The results obtained with t...

Solid waste management is a significant issue for sustainable development that involves the technical, socioeconomic, legal, ecological, political, and even cultural components. For this reason, systems analysis has been uniquely providing interdisciplinary support for policy analysis and decision making in solid waste management for the last few d...

Background, aim, and scope This paper presents a study related to the application of the reliability-based life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess different alternatives for solid waste management in the Setúbal peninsula, Portugal. The current system includes waste collection, transport, sorting, recycling, and mechanical and biological treatment (M...

Increasing concern has been given to pharmaceutical waste and their adequate disposal. Since the occurrence of pharmaceutical active substances has been detected in the environment, several changes in policy have been made worldwide, in order to provide adequate disposal practices. A number of waste collection programs have been developed. This stu...

In the past few decades, solid waste management systems in Europe have involved complex and multi-faceted trade-offs among a plethora of technological alternatives, economic instruments, and regulatory frameworks. These changes resulted in various environmental, economic, social, and regulatory impacts in waste management practices which not only c...

Leachate treatment continues to be a relevant matter in waste disposal management. Its generation is an unavoidable outcome of landfill waste disposal. An adequate landfill leachate collection and treatment allows proper environmental protection and prevention of surface water, groundwater and soils' contamination, as well as minimises operational...

Leachate treatment continues to be a relevant matter in waste disposal management. Its generation is an unavoidable outcome of landfill waste disposal. An adequate landfill leachate collection and treatment allows proper environmental protection and prevention of surface water, groundwater and soils' contamination, as well as minimises operational...

The advancements in technology development and the consumers buying power growth have originated an increase on the production of electronic equipments, enhancing the generation of special wastes, namely Waste Electric and Electronic Equipments (WEEE) along with spent batteries and accumulators (B&A) in the portable equipments. In both cases, susta...

The advancements in technology development and the consumers buying power growth have originated an increase on the production of electronic equipments, enhancing the generation of special wastes, namely Waste Electric and Electronic Equipments (WEEE) along with spent batteries and accumulators (B&A) in the portable equipments. In both cases, susta...

O Instituto Regulador de Águas e Resíduos, atualmente Entidade Reguladora de Águas e Resíduos (ERSAR) é a entidade responsável pela regulação dos serviços públicos de abastecimento de água para consumo humano, de saneamento de águas residuais urbanas e de gestão de resíduos urbanos. Estes serviços devem pautar-se por princípios de universalidade no...

This report proposes a new set of guidelines for the characterization of municipal solid waste. It is based on an analysis of reference methodologies, used internationally, and a case study of Valorsul (a company that handles recovery and treatment of solid waste in the North Lisbon Metropolitan Area). In particular, the suggested guidelines presen...