Life-cycle cost analysis of waste collection equipment: The case study of Cascais Municipality

摘要: The recent publication of the ISO 55000 standards series provides a guide on asset management. One of the requirements set on the ISO 55001 is the consideration of the asset life cycle, which comes in line with the recent European Directive on public purchasing recommending the awarding based on the life-cost instead of the purchase cost. Focusing on the solid waste sector, there are two major components: i) waste collection; and ii) waste treatment. Regarding waste collection there are several studies on the spatial optimization of collection services (route planning), but, little is found on the time optimization of the collection service, namely definition the equipment maintenance and replacement plans and evaluation of equipment alternatives. The present communication proposes a methodology for the detailed life cycle cost analysis based on the ISO 15686-5 and presents its application to the waste collection at Cascais municipality with the aim of providing a baseline for the time optimization of the service, namely assisting on decisions regarding equipment operation and replacement. Waste collection in Cascais Municipality is divided into 4 services: i) residual waste; ii) source segregated waste, namely paper, plastic and glass; iii) parks and garden waste; and iv) bulky waste. The containers contribute only 8%, while the vehicles represent 92% of the life-cycle costs of the waste collection. The vehicles operation accounts for the largest share of their life-cycle costs, with up to 82%. Within the operation, labour cost represent up to 88%(72% of the life cycle costs), implying that alternatives on automation to reduce labour needs will have …