Exploratory analysis of variability in municipal waste collection using RFID-based operational data: A case study from the Slovak Republic

The objective of this case study is to identify and assess the potential for reducing variability in municipal waste collection in a selected town. The research was conducted in Michalovce, a town located in eastern Slovakia. In 2024, the municipality introduced weighing of individual municipal waste collections using modern collection vehicles and RFID-based identification, creating a detailed operational database of collection events at individual sites. Based on this dataset, we examined the variability in waste amounts at both the collection-event and collection-site levels. The analysis confirmed significant relationships between the number of containers and the amount of waste collected, and between collection frequency and total waste volume. At the same time, the results revealed operational inefficiencies, suggesting that some collection schedules could be better aligned with actual waste generation patterns. The methodology and findings can be applied directly in the town under study and may also serve as a useful reference for other municipalities in Slovakia and neighbouring countries with similar waste collection systems.