One of the main environmental issues affecting the world is due to poor solid waste management. The problem reaches the point of causing the deterioration of the biological systems and social structures of a country. In the case of Puerto Rico, the problem is no different from the rest of the world. The practice of burying trash and an associated insignificant percent of recycling are the basic trends in the country. The Rio Piedras town was chosen as the study area because it is representative of island wide trends. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total population of the municipality of Rio Piedras for 2000 was 9,320 persons. The aim of the study was to analyze the solid waste management system in Rio Piedras and whether these management practices were adequate. Significant work was done with the community to determine how they were implementing the different management practices. This study considered storage at the point of generation, the composition of solid waste, an analysis of the routes, disposal, recycling and reduction mechanisms, and socio-demographic analysis.

Results/Conclusions

It was observed that the wastes had higher percentage of food waste (34.1%), paper (18.6%), plastics (16.2%) and cardboard (10.5%). These observations showed that most of the wastes were recyclable materials, suggesting the need for the development of a plan involving the integration of recycling and the management of organic waste. Since recycling is a mechanism to diminish the amount of materials that arrive at a sanitary landfill, the primary target of the plan was the creation of a proposal for the reduction, reuse and recycling of the solid wastes.  This proposal contemplated costs, effectiveness and viability. In addition, an area for a storage center was considered. The present systems for the handling of solid wastes in Rio Piedras are relatively primitive, with a high percentage of recyclable materials being lost, inconsistency in the types of containers used for storage and inefficiency in the collection mechanisms.  The collected data will produce a plan that is implementable and viable, resulting in better management of waste.