Waste Management Services and Solutions

Question One 

Probability to litter 

Some of the reasons that determine probability to litter include attitudes and behaviors, litter situations, and cost of waste management. Attitudes and behavior are two factors that determine how an individual will behave in a given situation. An individual that feels personally responsible for making the environment clean will not litter, unlike a person that does not have the same conscience. Secondly, litter situations like unavailability of dumpsites and trash cans will increase chances to litter as opposed to the contrary. When the cost of waste management is high for both households and city councils, there is a high probability of an individual to litter as opposed to when the management measures are effective. Out of the three, attitudes and behaviors are the highest determinants of an individual to litter. According to Beeharry et al. (2017), attitudes are psychological factors that are powerful at influencing the decision as opposed to costs and situations. Awareness makes individuals aware of the repercussions of littering and thus made self-responsible for keeping the environment clean. 

Actionable litter plan 

First, training will be done to members of the community to make them aware of the need to conserve the environment. Second, the team will establish sites where households and businesses will dispose of their litter. Third, a penalty strategy will be devised and implemented in the community. Fourth, the community will be given channels like emails addresses and phone numbers through which they can communicate problems or any issues as they arise. The channels will also provide users with opportunities to raise complaints. Fifth, there will be the recruitment of environment conservation staff from the community to join the project team. Having employees from the community will encourage protection of the environment. The staff would include engineers, wardens, landfill, enforcement officers, and traffic wardens among others. Finally, waste management programs will be identified and implemented. The team will ensure partnership with other waste management bodies such as recycling companies, law enforcement, and litter collection among others. 

Question Two 

Part a 

The waste generated is equivalent to (10,000*4.8*7)= 33600lbs 

The amount to waste collected by every track is equivalent to (28*650) =18200 per week 

The number of trucks needed for the station is equivalent to 336000/18200= 18 

The cost of making travels to the station is equivalent to (18*1.3*58) = 1357.2 miles per week 

The total number of haul trucks needed is equivalent to 168/23 = 7 trucks 

The cost of using the haul trucks in the transportation of waste is equivalent to (7*0.56*63) = 246.96 

The total cost of station transfer is equivalent to (168*10) = 1680 

The cost of long-haul trucks is equivalent to (1680+246.96) = 1926.96 

From the above calculation, the cost of transfer is less than the cost of long-haul trucks. Therefore, the community should build and operate a transfer station. 

1926.96/2400*100 = 80.29% 

The cost will be reduced by 19.71% 

Part b 

First, 65.5% of waste goes to the landfill with a 34.5 reduction. Thus, waste generated from residential include (1000*4.8*7*0.655) = 220080 

Waste from each truck 18200 per week 

Trucks needed = 220080/18200 = 12 

The cost of travel = (12*1.3*58) 904.8 for each week. 

Number of haul trucks = (110.04/23) = 4 trucks 

Cost of haul truck = 4*$0.56*63 miles = 141.12 

Cost station transfer = (110.04*10) = 1,100.04 

Cost incurred with haul trucks = (1,100.0480 + 141.12) = 1,241.52 

1,241.52/1,620 X 100% = 76.63% 

Thus, a transfer station should be built as it will reduce cost by 23.37% 

Question Three 

a) A volume-based fee system is one where households are charged wastes per volume (Park & Lah, 2015). The system is critical to waste management as it encourages households to recycle, reduce the generation of waste, and use organic components that decompose. Moreover, the system is fair to all individuals. 

b) The volume-based fee system is also critical to commercial operations. The system is less costly to implement and operate compared to the weight-based system (Park & Lah, 2015). The measure encourages commercial and small businesses to separate their wastes and encourage recycling. Further, it encourages the business to reduce unnecessary consumption of non-disposable products. 

c) The most appropriate fee-based system for a construction site weight based. The system is one where all wastes are weighed and charged accordingly. The system is also fair and easy to understand. Even though the system is expensive to implement, it encourages waste reduction from construction companies. Companies experience direct savings when they prevent or recycle wastes. 

d) The cost-saving factors and abilities to influence a reduction in waste disposable were leaders principles used to make the recommendations above. The fee-based system selected were those that are easy to implement and those that would be most effective given a situation. 

Question Four 

Organic wastes are the materials that can be deposited in a compost pile. The organic wastes include food waste, wood, yard trimming, textiles, paper and paperboard. The materials are an organic waste or otherwise termed as green wastes. According to Hottle et al. (2015), organic waste includes components that are made from animal, plant and degradable carbon such as timber, paper, and cardboard. The rest of the materials are non-biodegradable and thus should be placed in separate trash cans. The percentage of recyclable material from compost material is equivalent to (64.6+15.7+15.2+4.8+57.7) 157.8 = 157.8*34.5)/361.3 = 15.07 

Thus, compost material makes up 15.07% of recycling waste. 

For success recycling and composting wastes, it is critical that the materials not to comingle. Otherwise, successful composting or recycling may not be achieved. Additionally, it will be more costly to separate the wastes once they are comingled. For easier management of the wastes, the city council needs to distribute sorted trash cans and bins that are well labeled to household and businesses. There is also a need for the city council to instruct users on what is required of them during the disposal of wastes. Awareness and labeling will facilitate the disposal of wastes in rightful bins for easier collection. 

References 

Beeharry, Y. D., Bekaroo, G., Bokhoree, C., Phillips, M. R., & Jory, N. (2017). Sustaining anti-littering behavior within coastal and marine environments: Through the macro-micro level lenses.  Marine pollution bulletin ,  119 (2), 87-99. 

Hottle, T. A., Bilec, M. M., Brown, N. R., & Landis, A. E. (2015). Toward zero waste: composting and recycling for sustainable venue based events.  Waste Management ,  38 , 86-94. 

Park, S., & Lah, T. J. (2015). Analyzing the success of the volume-based waste fee system in South Korea.  Waste management ,  43 , 533-538.