Waste Collection Company Research Articles

The identification of the domestic waste collection system associated with the least operative musculoskeletal disorders using human Resource absence data

With increasing pressures around public sector costs, UK Local Authorities (LAs) and waste collection companies, are under pressure to reduce absence rates due to ill health. The identification of the 'safest' method of waste collection in the UK has been largely unresolved with many different types of waste and recycling receptacles used and deemed acceptable. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between domestic waste collection methods and absence due to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) through the comparison of absence rates for different activity. Studies based upon ergonomic theory had suggested the use of wheeled bins is better than the use of boxes, but this has not been tested empirically. Absence data was obtained from 15 LAs who allocated a more detailed activity role to their records, allowing for activity absence rates to be calculated. The outputs were collated and analysed using SPSS to identify statistically significant relationships between types of waste collection services. The results confirm that wheeled bins are associated with less proxy measures of MSD than boxes, baskets and sacks with even lower absence rates associated with 1100 L capacity bins, when handled by two workers. Findings also indicates that there is a level where MSD absence interventions are unlikely to be sustainable.In conclusion these findings should help LAs better understand some critical factors regarding waste collection strategies and MSD absence and inform HSE enforcement strategies. Employers should interrogate their own ill health data and seek to move to systems that create less MSDs.

Assessment of Public–Private Partnership in Municipal Solid Waste Management in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The overall responsibility for waste management in Phnom Penh Capital (PPC) has rested with the municipal authorities and contracted waste collection companies. Providing waste collection services is a major challenge for Phnom Penh due to the increasing waste volume and the deficiency of the system under public–private partnership. In response to continuing population growth and urbanization, sustainable management is necessary. This study reviewed the details of the processes and examined the performance of the private sector and local government authorities (LGAs). The study used sustainability assessment, according to a success and efficiency factor method. This assessment method was developed to support solid waste management in developing countries. Multiple sustainability domains were evaluated: institutional, legislative, technical, environmental and health aspects as well as social, economic, financial and critical aspects. The results indicate that the long-term contract design attempts for partnership may actually result in a worsening of the situation by facilitating new ways of concentration, inefficiency and political interest. The limited institutional capacity of the public sectors is a consequence of the inefficient decentralization of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) policies. Public–private partnerships can be neither effective nor sustainable if LGAs and CINTRI co. Ltd. waste collection company do not build proper incentives into their management of the two sectors. Revisiting the legal framework, establishing a facilitating agency that will assist in the design and the nurturing of partnerships, competitive tendering, and transparency and financial accountability are essential elements for PPP on the provision of waste services in PPC.

Waste minimization by households – A unique informational strategy in the Netherlands

Households can minimize residual waste and increase the volume of materials recycled by improving waste separation and changing purchasing behaviour. Informational strategies may provide people information on reasons to minimize waste and information on how to minimize waste. However, a meta-analysis found that the effect of informational strategies on waste minimization is small to medium. While some studies find effects, others do not. To improve the effectiveness of informational strategies to promote waste minimization, it is important to better understand the underlying processes. We proposed and tested if an intervention, consisting of an innovative informational strategy, strengthens the variables from the norm activation model, i.e. increased awareness of consequences, outcome efficacy and personal norms. We conducted a field study in collaboration with a waste collection company. The current study not only tested if the intervention increased the separation of waste, but also whether households changed their purchase behaviour and if they reduced the volume of residual waste. We included self-reported as well as actual behaviour and tested long term effects after the programme ended. Our findings show that the informational strategy effectively reduced households’ waste. Furthermore, the intervention changed waste behaviour partly via the variables from the norm activation model. Particularly, awareness of consequences and outcome efficacy explained the influence of the intervention on waste minimization. Our findings suggest that informational strategies may be effective in minimizing household waste when awareness of consequences and outcomes efficacy are increased by the information.

Management of Waste Collection from Yachts and Tall Ships from the Perspective of Sustainable Water Tourism

This article deals with the issue of waste collection from yachts and tall ships that is important from the perspective of sustainable tourism. There are, of course, procedures that regulate the passing of waste by vessels, which also apply to tourist vessels. However, the authors made an attempt to analyze the process of waste collection carried out under non-standard conditions, i.e., during a mass event held at the port of the Tall Ships Races final, which took place in 2017 in Szczecin. Many yachts and tall ships participated in the event, and in addition, due to the multiplicity of attractions, the event area was very popular among tourists and visitors (over one and a half million people in three days). Due to the safety of the participants, and the need to maintain high aesthetic standards, the procedures for collecting waste from vessels had to be modified. In addition to the preparation of a flowchart on which the existing procedural modifications were presented, based on the source data received from the waste collection company, quantitative and structural analyses of the waste were carried out. The conducted research showed that the waste collection required the coordination of the activities of many entities. This article also draws attention to operational problems that occurred during waste collection from vessels during the Tall Ships Races final. Statistical analysis allowed for the determination of the days where the vessels disposed the most solid and liquid waste, and how the structure of the amount of collected waste was shaped. The Tall Ships Races is the most popular and the biggest event of this type in the world—gathering the largest number of tall ships. They are carried out annually, and their route leads through various ports; however, the regatta final is the culminating point that attracts the largest number of tourists. For this reason, many cities are trying to become its organizers. In 2018, the finals took place in the Dutch port of Harlingen, and in 2019, the Danish port of Aarhus will be responsible for its organization. Two years later, in 2021, the Tall Ships Races regatta final will be hosted by Szczecin again. The results of the research conducted in this article may be helpful for appropriate preparation by subsequent ports for waste collection, which may contribute to the safety of the participants taking part in the event.

Efficiency of Heuristic Algorithms in Solving Waste Collection Vehicle Routing Problem: A Case Study

This paper investigated the efficiency of six heuristic algorithms from prior studies in the attempt to solve issues related to waste collection, namely: (i) Nearest Greedy (NG), (ii) Further from Depot (FFD), (iii) Different Initial Customer (DIC), (iv) Savings Approach, (v) Sweep Algorithm, and (vi) Different Initial Customer based on Sweep Algorithm. In fact, these heuristics have been employed to solve several routing problems in past studies, but the performance of each heuristic has never been compared. Hence, this paper looked into the efficiency of these heuristics by testing them on a real case study of waste collection problem in a district located at the north of Peninsular Malaysia. Several solutions obtained from these heuristics were compared with solutions implemented by the waste collection company, especially in terms of the total distance travelled. As a result, the computational results exhibited that DIC generated the best solutions, when compared to other heuristics, with a 12% reduction of the total travel distance.

Análise do processo produtivo e capacidade operacional de uma organização de coleta seletiva de resíduos sólidos – estudo de caso asnov garanhuns

Gerenciar adequadamente um processo produtivo é determinante para alcançar os objetivos organizacionais, porém a ausência de conhecimento técnico torna essa gestão desafiadora e leva a resultados aquém do que a organização poderia obter. Associações e cooperativas de catadores de materiais recicláveis, bastante relevantes na implantação da gestão integrada de resíduos, através da Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos (PNRS), contam, na maior parte das vezes, com um gerenciamento incipiente de seus processos e atividades. Nesse sentido, propôs-se a análise do processo produtivo de uma organização de coleta seletiva de resíduos sólidos recicláveis e reutilizáveis, enfocando sua capacidade de absorver o volume gerado desses resíduos em sua área de atuação. Utilizou-se de questionário semiestruturado e entrevistas, construindo-se o fluxograma do processo, e de mensurações da capacidade operacional da produção. Os resultados obtidos, da organização atuante no município de Garanhuns, Pernambuco, a única a realizar coleta seletiva na cidade, demonstraram sua capacidade operacional de absorver os resíduos recicláveis e reutilizáveis gerados no município. O processo produtivo é apresentado em detalhes e sua capacidade de absorção dos resíduos ainda que pequena, contribui inegavelmente para a redução do volume considerável de resíduos destinados a aterros.

Optimisation of the Municipal Waste Collection Process in a Small Size and Scarcely Populated Municipality

Abstract The paper presents a review of legal conditions regarding the process of municipal waste collection. An analysis of systems and solutions for the management and monitoring of a fleet of vehicles that can be used in the operation of means of transport during the implementation of the municipal waste process was carried out. The paper presents a coherent concept of ICT system for the optimization of the municipal waste collection process in a small-sized municipality. The proposed system can be used by companies responsible for waste collection, transport and service companies participating in the waste collection process. By basing the system on commonly available elements and services (Internet, GSM and GPS), its installation and operation is fast, simple and does not require large financial outlays.

Optimisation of the Municipal Waste Collection Process in a Small Size and Scarcely Populated Municipality

Abstract The paper presents a review of legal conditions regarding the process of municipal waste collection. An analysis of systems and solutions for the management and monitoring of a fleet of vehicles that can be used in the operation of means of transport during the implementation of the municipal waste process was carried out. The paper presents a coherent concept of ICT system for the optimization of the municipal waste collection process in a small-sized municipality. The proposed system can be used by companies responsible for waste collection, transport and service companies participating in the waste collection process.

Internal factors of intermunicipal cooperation: what matters most and why?

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the internal aspects of intermunicipal cooperation, providing a new and innovative approach to the cost effectiveness of municipal waste management. We examine a sample of 658 municipalities in the Czech Republic’s South Moravian Region and 205 cooperating municipalities separately during 2012–2014. The results, based on ordinary least-squares regression, show that cost reduction is significantly influenced by the institutional arrangement of intermunicipal cooperation, the participation of municipal representatives in management, and professional managers. The paper shows that a crucial role in cost reduction is played by internal factors that have been investigated only marginally so far. Cost increases are related to municipality sizes larger than 10,000 inhabitants and to profit-oriented behaviours of waste collection companies. The results differ in the size samples of municipalities; only the impact of institutional arrangement is significant in all groups of municipalities.

Supporting multi-depot and stochastic waste collection management in clustered urban areas via simulation–optimization

Waste collection is one of the most critical logistics activities in modern cities with considerable impact on the quality of life, urban environment, city attractiveness, traffic flows and municipal budgets. Despite the problem’s relevance, most existing work addresses simplified versions where container loads are considered to be known in advance and served by a single vehicle depot. Waste levels, however, cannot be estimated with complete certainty as they are only revealed at collection. Furthermore, in large cities and clustered urban areas, multiple depots from which collection routes originate are common, although cooperation among vehicles from different depots is rarely considered. This paper analyses a rich version of the waste collection problem with multiple depots and stochastic demands by proposing a hybrid algorithm combining metaheuristics with simulation. Our ‘simheuristic’ approach allows for studying the effects of cooperation among different depots, thus quantifying the potential savings this cooperation could provide to city governments and waste collection companies.

A proposal to improve e-waste collection efficiency in urban mining: Container loading and vehicle routing problems – A case study of Poland

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also known as e-waste, is one of the most important waste streams with high recycling potential. Materials used in these products are valuable, but some of them are hazardous. The urban mining approach attempts to recycle as many materials as possible, so efficiency in collection is vital. There are two main methods used to collect WEEE: stationary and mobile, each with different variants. The responsibility of WEEE organizations and waste collection companies is to assure all resources required for these activities - bins, containers, collection vehicles and staff - are available, taking into account cost minimization. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly determine the capacity of containers and number of collection vehicles for an area where WEEE need to be collected. There are two main problems encountered in collection, storage and transportation of WEEE: container loading problems and vehicle routing problems. In this study, an adaptation of these two models for packing and collecting WEEE is proposed, along with a practical implementation plan designed to be useful for collection companies’ guidelines for container loading and route optimization. The solutions are presented in the case studies of real-world conditions for WEEE collection companies in Poland.

Analysis of Accessibility to Water Supply and Sanitation Services in the Awutu-Senya East Municipality, Ghana

Despite the essence of water supply and decent sanitation services to mankind, access to these basic services is a challenge in the Awutu-Senya East Municipality. The paper examined accessibility to water supply and sanitation services in the Awutu Senya East Municipality and the accompanying consequences. In the analysis of water provision responsibility, it was established that the contribution of private individuals constituted 64.2% of daily water production while public water provision effort constituted 35.8%. In spite of the enviable contributions of private individuals in water provision efforts in the Municipality, however, about 45% of the water sources are salty while 28% are impure and contaminated. Aside the inability of the Ghana Water Company Limited to supply desirable water quantities in the Municipality, the Assembly has also not been able to regulate the prices charged on water by private water operators, or make meaningful effort to augment water provision in the Municipality. Management of sanitation in the Municipality has proven to be daunting for authorities. The factors that lead to poor sanitation in the Municipality are diverse, ranging from weak institutional capacity to wrong attitudes. Consequently, the inefficiency of waste collection companies encourages indiscriminate disposal of wastes in the Municipality. For this reason, the Municipal Assembly should issue a minimum water quality requirement to all identified private water operators in order to ameliorate the quality problems associated water supply in the Municipality. Additionally, the Assembly should devise a better monitoring tool for ensuring that tasks assigned to waste collection companies in the Municipality are efficiently executed.

Inventory routing for dynamic waste collection

We consider the problem of collecting waste from sensor equipped underground containers. These sensors enable the use of a dynamic collection policy. The problem, which is known as a reverse inventory routing problem, involves decisions regarding routing and container selection. In more dense networks, the latter becomes more important. To cope with uncertainty in deposit volumes and with fluctuations due to daily and seasonal effects, we need an anticipatory policy that balances the workload over time. We propose a relatively simple heuristic consisting of several tunable parameters depending on the day of the week. We tune the parameters of this policy using optimal learning techniques combined with simulation. We illustrate our approach using a real life problem instance of a waste collection company, located in The Netherlands, and perform experiments on several other instances. For our case study, we show that costs savings up to 40% are possible by optimizing the parameters.

New developments in waste management in the Netherlands

With a current recycling rate of 51% the Netherlands has one of the leading positions in the recycling of household waste in Europe. However, in the last 10-15 years there have been few developments made in the recycling of household waste. The introduction of producer responsibility for waste electrical and electronic equipment in 1999 and for packaging in 2005 have been the biggest changes in this period. However, these measures have, so far, not significantly influenced the overall recycling rate for household waste. In order to plan the next steps, which are necessary to reach the goals of the National Waste Management plan, new innovative methods are needed. A number of Dutch municipalities and waste collection companies are investigating promising new paths to enhance separate collection and recycling of household waste. This article reports on three of the most interesting initiatives.

Budget sheets and buy-in: financing community-based waste management in Siem Reap, Cambodia

This paper details some of the difficulties in financing a community-based waste management (CBWM) project for the collection of waste in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It presents a series of financing scenarios based on several potential logistical arrangements. The financial variables investigated include labour costs and honorariums, collection fees, charges for secondary collection, land and equipment costs, and educational programmes. The case study illustrates how the loss of a political champion and a lack of cooperation by a private waste collection company derailed the financing of a CBWM project despite the presence of other favourable conditions for its success. The waste collection company's participation was fundamental to ensuring the affordability of secondary waste collection, and this one financial element greatly affected the feasibility of the entire system. The paper concludes that without buy-in and financial cooperation from all stakeholders, the best laid plans for CBWM (and the accompanying budget sheets) are rendered irrelevant.

Municipal solid waste management in Africa: Strategies and livelihoods in Yaoundé, Cameroon

This paper provides an overview of the state of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé, and suggests some possible solutions for its improvement. The institutional, financial, and physical aspects of MSW management, as well as the livelihoods of the population, were analyzed. Our study revealed that distances and lack of infrastructure have a major impact on waste collection. Garbage bins are systematically mentioned as the primary infrastructure needed by the population in all quarters, whether it be a high or low standard community. The construction of transfer stations and the installation of garbage bins are suggested as a solution to reduce distances between households and garbage bins, thus improving waste collection vehicle accessibility. Transfer stations and garbage bins would enable the official waste collection company to expand its range of services and significantly improve waste collection rates. Several transfer stations have already been set up by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs), but they require technical, institutional and funding support. Research is needed on the quality and safety of community-made compost, as well as on soil fertility in urban and peri-urban areas. Most of the stakeholders, municipalities, the official waste collection company and households acknowledge the need for better monitoring and regulation of MSW management. The urban community of Yaoundé also needs to maintain its support of MSW management and promote the sustainability of NGOs and CBOs operating in underserved areas not yet covered by adequate infrastructures. A major opportunity for implementation of such waste policy is the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) program dedicated to urban planning and good governance.

On the application of a transportation model for revenue optimization in waste management: a case study

This paper describes an interactive decision support system called Opti-Link which has been developed for a company operating in the area of waste and raw material management. Built around a specific transportation problem, the system is used to maximize the revenue generated by selling waste paper to paper mills. Furthermore, the dual variables of the linear program allow the planner to identify upper bounds for setting bid prices to buy waste paper from waste collection companies. First operational results indicate a significant increase in profit while at the same time the duration of the planning process could be cut by more than half.