## 2 Materials and Methods  
The study area consists of 4 different municipalities in the province of Bari, located in the Apulia region, in the south of Italy. The mean coordinates of the area are latitude 40.962834\({}^{\circ}\) and longitude 17.207541\({}^{\circ}\) and the elevation ranging from 0 m asl to 408 m asl. The area is characterized by a mean annual precipitation ranging from 596 mm to 622 mm and by an annual solar irradiance equal to 5124 MJ m\({}^{-2}\). The municipalities are Mola di Bari, Conversano, Polignano a Mare, and Monopoli and cover an area of about 400 km\({}^{2}\). They are grouped together since they constitute a single optimal collection administrative area for waste management. In fact, Apulia's regional waste planning defines a single optimal territorial area, equal to the whole region and responsible for waste collection and disposal services, and several optimal collection areas, including a different number of municipalities, for the provision of sweeping, collection, and transportation services in order to maximize their efficiency. The study area is particularly suited to agriculture, and therefore, APW production is intense. The main crops grown inside this territory are olive trees, orchard trees such as almonds, and horticultural crops in open fields, as well as, in greenhouses, wine and table grapes and cereals. Furthermore, there are many nurseries growing horticultural crops and ornamental plants for commercial sale. Most of these nurseries are in the municipality of Monopoli. The land-use map (updated to 2022) of the study area, as well as its boundaries, are shown in Figure 1. For the elaborations of the land-use map, as well as the other maps, the free QGIS software [20] was used. Figure 1: Land-use map of the study area taken by elaborations made using the QGIS software. As a result of the territorial analysis, maps considering the real-time scenario that characterizes the actual state of the APW in the four different municipalities were obtained. Moreover, two different scenarios were simulated to evaluate how it may affect the APW. The 1 st scenario considered the extension of the life duration of some plastic materials used in several PAs and for which that extension is deemed really feasible. Life extension was proposed according to the maximum recorded useful life of the materials available on the market. These values are based on the surveys delivered to farmers, manufacturers, and stakeholders and on the database of plastic materials held at the University of Bari. Improvements in plastics lifespan can be obtained by using highly effective additives able to hamper polymer degradation due to solar radiation exposure. The 2 nd scenario was oriented towards the replacement of some of the plastic materials, mostly with biodegradable materials, such as starch-based mulching films. They can be disposed of in the soil, where bacterial flora transforms them into biomass, methane, carbon dioxide, and water without plastic waste generation. Products already on the market were considered. The different changes in the PAs are addressed in the Table 1. Maps showing APW density as a result of the application of the actual and improved scenarios were produced. They are useful tools for identifying the areas on the land where the application of the different improved scenarios is more effective. APW management is an issue that requires the involvement of different sectors to minimize its impact on the environment. In this study, a GIS database was created to geo-reference the APW in the area, characterizing the real-time scenario of APW distribution and the two improved scenarios, based on the following methodology:  
1. Identifying the main crops through the support of the land-use map and the nurseries through their direct identification, thus creating the final land-use map on QGIS software (Figure 1);
2.