Swot analysis and land management of plastic wastes in agriculture

Plastic materials are generally used for several agricultural applications and, at the end of their lifetime, they produce high volumes of waste to be disposed. A non suitable disposal system for agricultural plastic waste could induce economical damages, negative effects on the natural landscape and on the agro-ecosystem with loss of material or energy. Optimizing the processes of collection, transport and final disposal, the agricultural plastic wastes become "secondary raw materials", technically efficient and economically feasible, that can be re-used for also other different applications. The problem of the management of the plastic waste flux coming from agricultural activities is still far to be solved in some Italian areas. In the present paper the management of agricultural plastic wastes was evaluated by means of the SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) analysis and the application of a Geographical Information System (G.I.S). The methodology was applied to the municipality of Trani, in the Barletta, Andria, Trani Province (BAT), in Apulia Region, South Italy. The SWOT analysis was used to evaluate the whole process concerning the waste management, the GIS methodology was used to quantify plastic wastes generation on the land.