An Investigation into Stationary Pneumatic Waste Conveyance Systems in Residential Areas : With a Case Study of Retrofit Installations in Singaporean Public Housing Estates

Sammanfattning: Rapid urbanization brings an increasing pressure on current waste collection and transportation methods to cope with ever-increasing waste streams in urban environments. Pneumatic Waste Conveyance Systems or PWCS is often seen as an alternative for replacing open-handling of waste in narrow and congested town environments.  This research intends to find out when, where and why such systems would be implemented, and the entirety of stationary PWCS implementation and usage is being investigated, from government, experts, developers, suppliers, system owners/ operators, users to the general public. The findings are reported and analyzed using a variety of methods including but not limiting to a case study for public- housing retrofit-projects in Singapore.  Results affirm that PWCS is useful for waste collection in densely populated urban areas while offering both advantages and disadvantages as noted in this study. That which is remarkable is however spotting more concerns than opportunities and some of these concerns are highlighted and discussed in this paper. Although some parts of the study proved to be challenging and thus inconclusive, strong consensus are found regarding the need for long-term planning and strategic conception to reap the intended benefits that PWCS can offer.