## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Study Area  
The study area includes some municipalities of the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy) that fall within the \"Metapontino\" agri-food district (Figure 1). It extends along the Ionian Sea, occupying the coastline for about 35 km. It includes eight municipalities: Bernalda; Montalbano Jonico; Nova Siri; Pisticci; Policoro; Rotondella; Scanzano Jonico, and Tursi.  
The climate of the area is hot and semi-arid, with temperatures ranging from a minimum of about 5 \({}^{\circ}\)C in the coldest months to a maximum of over 40 \({}^{\circ}\)C in summer. Precipitation is less than 500 mm per year and is distributed mainly in the autumn-winter period. The vegetation is dominated by the presence of a widespread Mediterranean scrub as well as of pine forests of Mediterranean species [19]. This area has a higher population density than the regional average (74 inhabitants/km\({}^{2}\) against 60 in the whole Basilicata region), with good employment indices. In fact, agriculture employs 26% of the active population; moreover, while representing 9.4% of the regional UAA (Utilized Agricultural Area), it produces more than 25% of the regional agricultural value added, with a value per hectera of EUR 2314. The agricultural workers, equal to 4432, represent 21% of the total; those in non-agricultural sectors are 16,659, while the number of conductors with non-farm temperature activities represent about 31% of the total [19]. The level of education of farmers is also at the highest level in the region: around 24% have a university degree or high-school diploma. These data, referring to the last agricultural census carried out in 2010, are clearly improving. This area is also characterized by a vocation for tourism. In fact, most of the tourist infrastructure and hotel beds are concentrated here. The area is among the most dynamic in the agricultural sector: the value added produced is at high levels, both in terms of incidence on the regional total and on the agricultural area used [19]. The fruit and vegetable sector is the main agricultural activity in this district, this being one of the most important in southern Italy as well. Plastics are widely employed in this area, mostly for soil mulching, low/medium tunnel, greenhouse covers, or other kinds of crop-protection techniques (Figure 2). Therefore, this is an area where the problem of APW is relevant and needs to be addressed in an organized and standardized way. To this aim, for some years, the European Directive 2008/98/EC with the Waste Framework Directive  
Figure 1: Location of the study area with details of the Municipalities involved and altitude ranges.  
(WFD) provides guidelines for the management and recycling of agricultural plastics. This directive obliges member states (leaving this to regional or local authorities) to implement specific waste management plans [20] in order to minimize the impact on the environment and human health. However, it is a matter of fact that--in this area, like in other agricultural locations in Italy--a systematic organization for the collection, transportation, and disposal of APW, unfortunately does not yet exist.  
Table 1 represents the areas affected by vegetable crops, whose production cycle is linked to the massive use of plastics. Considering all the municipalities, the study area covers about 91,000 ha and represents almost 90% of the fruit and vegetable production in greenhouses or tunnels of the whole Region of Basilicata. The municipalities of Scanzano Jonico and Policoro alone account for more than 50% of the production.  
Figure 2: Two of the types of plastics used in agricultural fields in the study area.