## 2 Materials and Methods
### Inductive Approach Procedure
to convert it into meters); years refer to the plastic useful lifetime expressed in year(s); CACor is a dimensionless correction factor [35], taking into account the increase or decrease of the material surface due to the different coverages with respect to the real cultivated surface. For example, the plastic film used to cover greenhouses extended on a larger area than the protected agricultural area--opposite to what often happens with the much film, as it covers only a portion of the cultivated surface. This correction factor is fundamental since the data on agricultural crops refer to the cultivated surface in general. The CACorr is different for each crop and each type of plastic used. When it is greater than 1, it means that the crop needs more plastic in terms of surface area than is actually cultivated. If it is less than 1, the opposite is true. All CACorr values are reported in Table 1 in Appendix A. In addition, we should note that for some crops (melon and watermelon) the APCoeff_film was calculated for both greenhouses and tunnels (APCoeff_tunnel) used during the crop cycle. The formula is identical. The APCoeff for the mulch sheet (APCoeff_mulch) was also calculated in the same way as the plastic film:  
\[\text{APCoeff\_mulch}=(\rho\cdot\text{Tk}\cdot\text{years}^{-1})\cdot\text{ CA}_{\text{Corr}} \tag{2}\]  
Finally, for irrigation pipes, the APCoeff_ir was calculated on the basis of Equation (3). In this case, the density is expressed in kg per meter (kg\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-1}\)) because the type of plastic product and the technical characteristics are different. In all the companies interviewed, irrigation pipes with the same characteristics in terms of plastic were used. \[\text{APCoeff\_irr}=(\rho\cdot\text{years}^{-1})\cdot\text{CA}_{\text{Corr}} \tag{3}\]  
The sum of the contributions due to the different types of agricultural plastics defined the total amount of plastic waste for each specific crop (Equation (4)):  
\[\text{APCoeff\_tot}=\text{APCoeff\_film}+\text{APCoeff\_mulch}+\text{APCoeff\_irr} \tag{4}\]  
The Formulas (1)-(4) were modified from those proposed by other authors [23; 30]. The indices were verified with literature data, direct communications from producers, and the University of Basilicata and University of Bari databases on the physical properties of agricultural plastics. To clarify the methodology used to implement the calculation, Table 2 shows the calculation of only some types of crops as examples. Some crops, although different from each other, have cultivation cycles, such that farmers use the same types of plastic; for this reason, the values are the same. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Crops**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Plastic Typology**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Thickness 1 (\(\mu\))**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Density 2 (kg\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-3}\)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Years**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**CACorr (adim.)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**APCoeff**} \\  & & & & & & (kg\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\).years\({}^{-1}\)) \\ \hline
**CCG** & Plastic films & 160 & 1250 & 2 & 1.5 & 0.150 \\  & Mulch films & 20 & 1300 & 2 & 0.77 & 0.010 \\  & Irrigation pipes & & 0.008 & 2 & 1.1 & 0.004 \\  & Total & & & & 0.164 \\ \hline
**LG** & Plastic films & 160 & 1250 & 2 & 1.5 & 0.150 \\  & Mulch films & 20 & 1300 & 2 & 0.77 & 0.010 \\  & Irrigation pipes & & 0.008 & 2 & 1.1 & 0.004 \\  & Total & & & & 0.164 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Examples of different APCoffs calculated for some crops. Subsequently, using the basic tools of the QGIS software, a join was made between the APC coeff data and the administrative areas in order to map the quantities of APW through the product between the cultivated area for each type of crop and the calculated APC coeff. The interoperability between tabular data in.CSV format and vector data in QGIS guarantees simplicity andmediacy of use. Moreover, once the GIS project was set up, it is possible to make operations, analyses, and data interrogation in a consequential way [29].