Improved Collection And Disposal Of Solid Waste

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

INTRODUCTION:

Solid waste management in most cities of the developing countries is unsatisfactory despite consuming a relatively high proportion of municipal budgets. Most attempts at improving performance have focused on production capacity but have not yielded significant results. This paper suggests a different approach based on consumer preferences in order to improve the collection and dumping process of solid waste. The analysis calls into question conventional presumptions that households accord low priority to solid waste management compared to other urban services and are unwilling to pay for it. It also indicates that simple and inexpensive household surveys can provide valuable inputs into the planning process.

Lahore is the second largest city of Pakistan and the capital of Punjab Province. The population of the city as per GCE (2012) is about 11.6 million. The topography of the Lahore city is almost flat, sloping towards south and south-west. The area is about 200 m above mean sea level. Due to the high population and large domestic and industrial activities a huge amount (i.e., approx. 5500 tons/day) of solid waste is being produced. Presently almost all of the waste produced in Lahore is being dumped in open without any proper waste disposal method. Moreover, the population of the Lahore city is exponentially growing with the increase in size of the city.

All of the waste produced is discarded along the River Ravi, in depressions, open plots and along roadsides. Open dumping of this huge amount of solid waste along the River Ravi has caused a number of healths, environmental and aesthetic problems for the people living in the near vicinity of the river. Moreover, with surface runoff the waste also adds pollution load to the River Ravi resulting deteriorating impacts on water quality. City of Lahore generates approximately 5500 – 6000 tons of Solid Waste each day which is disposed off in highly objectionable manner in and around city limits. The waste collected from large cities such as Lahore consists of all types of wastes e.g. dry, wet, putrescible, non-putrescible etc. In the connection of these facts, Landfills  are highly-engineered waste management systems which are carefully designed structure built into or on top of the ground in which waste is isolated from the surrounding environment (groundwater, air, soil) require careful planning, time, and money before they become a reality. 

The purpose of this study is to offer a new solid waste collection service to households in their neighborhood. A person would pick up the waste from your house each day. The waste from all the houses subscribing to the service would be disposed of properly. It would be hauled away from this neighborhood in trucks to a municipal landfill. It would not be left around the neighborhood in rubbish heaps or municipal bins.

This kind of service can only be offered if a sufficient number of households agree to purchase it and agree to pay a monthly charge on a regular basis. The service can be offered by the municipal corporation or by a private firm. In either case each household could decide whether it wanted to accept this service or not.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this project will be to provide the necessary new waste collection service for the proper management of Solid waste.

It also focuses on the necessity to form landfill sites in Lahore District for proper treatment and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste.

It also aims at increasing the awareness of the local population on the importance of waste minimization, sorting and re-use as long-term strategies for the sustainable management of solid waste in the study area.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

As there is so much literature available on global level, some of it would be focused in the current research paper.

Batool SA, Ch MN (1994) in her study dealt with generation, composition, collection, transportation, and disposal, as well as the present cost of the waste management on the basis of 60% collection of the total waste and the cost of proposed improved system of management on the basis of 100% waste collection using the IWM-2 LCI model. The total waste generated per year is 500,000 tons, or 0.84/kg/cap/day. Presently 60% of the MSW is collected and disposed in open dumps, while 40% is not collected and lies along roadsides, streets railway lines, depressions, vacant plots, drains, storm drains and open sewers. In DGBT, 129 containers of 5-m(3) capacity, 120 containers of 10-m(3) capacity and 380 skips of 2.5-m(3) capacity are placed for waste collection

Mir Anjum Altaf, J. R. DESHAZO (1996) studied household demand for improved solid waste management.

METHODOLOGY

The economic value of providing this improvement in the allocation of solid waste was calculated by Contingent Valuation Method. It was used to bring forth the maximum monthly amount that households would be willing to pay for the improved service. The CVM involved asking a randomly chosen sample of 50 people what they were willing to pay for an improved system of Solid Waste Management. Then the average WTP of respondents was calculated and multiplied by the total number of people who got benefited from an upgrading to obtain an estimate of the total value of this performed activity.

The Contingent Valuation Method included two major components: a description of the service being offered including conditions of availability and a procedure to elicit a respondent’s willingness to pay for it with minimum bias.

Step 1: Setting up a hypothetical Market

At the time of the survey, a hypothetical market was set up for consumers of that particular area. Thus, the initial steps to the analysis were made easy by the fact that a market for exposure of garbage and waste material already existed. Surveyed consumers needed to be told the value of deterioration of environmental atmosphere. The aim of the survey was however to ask them to imagine a situation in which a higher price would be charged for a better collection system

Step 2: Obtaining bids.

Consumers were asked about their willingness to pay through a series of questions. They were made acknowledged of the bad effects of landfills in open plots, streets and along road sides then they were offered a fee charge for a new collection and disposal service at a paid rate, and mixed lot of answers were received in answer. Then they were asked if the charge fee was to be increased, will they still subscribe to the new collection service.

In this survey, households’ attitudes were observed about the cleanliness issue of their area that what would be the most appropriate procedure in order to remove dirtiness relating to solid waste.

A detailed questionnaire was filled by 50 consumers in order to calculate;

how many people are willing to receive a service

how many among them are ready to pay a charge fee

how much maximum each of the member in that particular area would pay for collection of garbage service

how much maximum each of the member in that particular area would pay for creation of new landfill sites

With the help of data acquired, consumers’ willingness to pay in the favor of improved solid waste management service was calculated.

A sample of Questionnaire is given following:

This is a research oriented questionnaire conducted by the Department of Economics, Government College University Lahore. It is ensured to you that all the information relating to you in this questionnaire will be kept secret and confidential.

Income ……………… Area……………………

Education...............

Suppose that it is decided to offer a new solid waste collection service to households in this neighborhood. A person would pick up the waste from your house each day. The waste from all the houses subscribing to the service would be disposed of properly. It would be hauled away from this neighborhood in trucks to a municipal landfill. It would not be left around the neighborhood in rubbish heaps or municipal bins. This waste collection service would thus address two problems: your waste would be picked up regularly from your house, and your waste would not be left around the neighborhood to create a sanitary problem. This kind of service can only be offered if a sufficient number of households agree to purchase it and agree to pay a monthly charge on a regular basis. The service can be offered by the municipal corporation or by a private firm. In either case each household could decide whether it wanted to accept this service or not.

Are you satisfied with the existing collection and disposal service of household waste?

Yes b) No

Are you satisfied with the existing arrangements for disposing of the waste generated by the cleaning of streets and drains?

Yes b) No

What measure would contribute most to improving the situation?

Improved collection from houses

More regular emptying of municipal garbage bins.

Better street and drain cleaning.

None of above

Will you accept an improvement in the waste management system at a given monthly fee?

Yes b) No

If no one takes the step, will you vote forward for this activity?

Yes b) No

Which service will you prefer more for picking solid waste from your house

Public service b) Private service

If the monthly charge of service is Rs. 40 per month. Assume that 25 percent of the other households in the neighborhood decide to accept the new waste collection service. Would you accept this service, or would you want to continue using your existing system?

Accept new service.

Continue existing mechanism

How much maximum will you pay monthly for improvement in waste management service?

Rs.........../-

How much will you pay for construction of proper landfill sites, as it will save environment from production of more pollution?

Between 50

Between 50 to 200

Above 200

If No, then why would you not pay for a change?

State reason.………………………………………………………................................

Step 3: Results of the Analysis

By using the results from questionnaires, it is achievable to calculate the consumers’ maximum willingness to pay as an average of all responses. The table 2 given below describes different ranges of consumers’ willingness to pay of various income class people who want a new collection and disposal service in their area/town.

When respondents were asked what measure would contribute most to improving the situation, 51% indicated improved collection from houses, 26% indicated better street and drain cleaning, and 23% indicated more regular emptying of municipal garbage bins. These responses indicate that a majority of respondents rate improving the cleanliness of the neighborhood as more important than the convenience associated with household pickup.

Table shows Measures to Improved Conditions

Measures Contributing to Improved Conditions

Title

No of People among 50 observations

Percentage

Improved collection from house

26

51%

Better street and drain cleaning

13

26%

More regular emptying of garbage bins

11

23%

On the basis of above calculation, project to be done was improved collection from each household. First of all, consumers were asked whether they were satisfied or not with their existing system and 48 out of 50 told that they were not satisfied with their existing waste management system and cleaning of streets and drains.

Table shows Households' willingness to pay for service

Household’s willingness to subscribe to

Improved solid waste service by price of service

Charge Fee

No of people Willing to Pay

Percentage%

0

2

4.1

15

2

4.1

20

8

16.66

30

15

31.25

40

7

14.5

50

5

10.4

60

2

4.1

75

3

6.25

90

2

4.1

100

2

4.1

The table 2 given above describes different ranges of consumers’ willingness to pay of various income class people who want a new collection and disposal service in their area/town. Amongst all the values it is evident that a higher percentage of people consent on paying Rs.30 at the end of every month in order to employ the new collection and disposal service. So the Median willingness to pay is 30 and average willingness to pay is Rs. 48.

The below given table elaborates the different income groups that show their willingness to avail new service.

Table Maximum willingness by Income Groups

Maximum Average Willingness of Different Income Groups

Category

Average WTP

Median WTP

Lower income class

25

20

Middle income class

32

30

Higher income class

65

50

The questionnaire also discussed consumer’s education, Income, Charge Fee and In order to check the effects of other variables on the subscription of new system, a functional form has been made below:

WTP = f (Income, No. of Subscribers, Charge fee, Education)

WTP = α0 + α1 (income) + α2 (no. of subscribers) + α3 (charge fee) + α4 (education)

To test the relationships, we run a regression by ordinary least squares method among the dependent and independent variables. Results of regression are given below:

Table 4: showing Regression results

Dependent Variable: WTP

Method: Least Squares

Date: 02/03/13 Time: 20:59

Sample: 1 48

Included observations: 48

Variable

Coefficient

Std. Error

t-Statistic

Prob.  

INCOME

0.001012

0.000287

3.526860

0.0010

SUBSCRIBERS

-0.146005

0.250720

-0.582345

0.5634

FEECHARGE

0.245122

0.252841

0.969472

0.3377

EDUCATION

-0.082487

0.648314

-0.127233

0.8993

C

7.860266

7.118881

1.104143

0.2757

R-squared

0.757147

    Mean dependent var

41.25000

Adjusted R-squared

0.734556

    S.D. dependent var

23.97916

S.E. of regression

12.35437

    Akaike info criterion

7.964230

Sum squared resid

6563.114

    Schwarz criterion

8.159147

Log likelihood

-186.1415

    Hannan-Quinn criter.

8.037889

F-statistic

33.51538

    Durbin-Watson stat

2.555686

Prob(F-statistic)

0.000000

The above shown regression tells us that a higher income increases the willingness to pay for a person, more the income more would the person be willing to pay for its betterment. Similarly, education and no of subscribers around him would also contribute in his decision making process.

CONCLUSION

From aforementioned detailed scheme of processes encountered during the contingent valuation method it is concluded that on average all the people of affected locality would pay a sum of Rs. 30/- at the end of each month for this new scheme of collection, Disposal and Recycling of waste. The mechanism discussed in paper would aim at worth environmental conditions after implementation. The proposed project will not only solve the health and sanitation issues related to insufficient solid waste collection, treatment and disposal methods, in addition to this it will also work as a model for the similar future projects in the country.

Cause and Effect Analysis

Cause and Effect Analysis of the whole project is given on the next page that discusses whole impacts on he economy and on the part of Govt as well.

Lower productivity

Low foreign exchange

High Rehabilitation Costs

Mental Restlessness

Stress

Low quality of life

Negative impression on the account

Decreased GDP

Lower productive output

Monetary losses to government in order to control diseases National

Impacts

Wasted Time

Wasted fuel

Biodiversity losses

Economic losses

Health Damage

Risk of Epidemics of infectious disease

Consequent Impacts

Increased Vector growth

High commuting time

Esthetically unappealing

Toxin release in the environment

Loss of valuable resources

Increased Pollution

Sector

Inputs

An Unhandled hazardous waste

No Mechanism to get Return from Govt Vehicles

Policies & Institution

Waste run off to surface water

Open dumping

Waste burning

Sector

Outputs

Key Sector Problem

OFFICIALLY NO DISPOSAL LANDFILLS Available

Excessive Expenditure on waste collection and other disposal options

Ineffective enforcement and regulation

Deficient institutional capabilities of municipal authorities

Inadequate Govt Resources

Logical Framework Analysis

Design

Summery

Performance Targets

Monitoring Mechanism

Assumptions

& Risks

Goals

Reduction and recycling of Hazardous waste

Conservation of resources and energy that would be expended in the production of more products

Reduced commuting time by municipal trucks

A decrease in annual expenses by almost 10%.

Increase in annual production by 10 %

Fuel saved by thousands of liters.

Half Yearly Municipal authorities Survey.

Relevant workshop survey.

Survey of relevant fuel pumps.

Appropriate records are available from concerned departments.

Purpose

Proper disposal of waste to prevent pollution that could endanger human health and the environment.

Waste of Lahore city as well as the the waste of nearby localities is 100% managed

Observational studies in hospitals

Public surveys

An alternative is being provided to officers by the Govt.

Outputs

Reuse of hazardous household products

Reduced need for generating hazardous substances

Healthy society

Healthy environment

Higher productivity

Minimized chances of prevalence of diseases

Monthly reports on recycling programmes.

Monitoring Reports.

Daily Report on Profits and expense book.

Inputs

Consultants/ Project Analysts

Human resources

Land allocation

Salaries

Implementation Progress Reports

Project Reports.

Expense Account Reports.

Project Account Reports.

Unbiased Consultants and Accountants are available.

The Logical Framework Analysis given on the previous page elaborates all the goals, required inputs, purpose and outputs of this project. One can easily judge the feasibility of given project by overviewing the Logical Framework Analysis.

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