Application and evaluation of forecasting methods for municipal solid waste generation in an eastern-European city

Abstract

Forecasting of generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries is often a challenging task due to the lack of data and selection of suitable forecasting method. This article aimed to select and evaluate several methods for MSW forecasting in a medium-scaled Eastern European city (Kaunas, Lithuania) with rapidly developing economics, with respect to affluence-related and seasonal impacts. The MSW generation was forecast with respect to the economic activity of the city (regression modelling) and using time series analysis. The modelling based on social-economic indicators (regression implemented in LCA-IWM model) showed particular sensitivity (deviation from actual data in the range from 2.2 to 20.6%) to external factors, such as the synergetic effects of affluence parameters or changes in MSW collection system. For the time series analysis, the combination of autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and seasonal exponential smoothing (SES) techniques were found to be the most accurate (mean absolute percentage error equalled to 6.5). Time series analysis method was very valuable for forecasting the weekly variation of waste generation data (r (2) > 0.87), but the forecast yearly increase should be verified against the data obtained by regression modelling. The methods and findings of this study may assist the experts, decision-makers and scientists performing forecasts of MSW generation, especially in developing countries.