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Review
Modelling municipal solid waste generation: A review
Peter Beigl, Sandra Lebersorger, Stefan Salhofer
¤Institute of Waste Management, Department of Water, Atmosphere and Environment, BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna, Austria
Accepted 27 December 2006 Available online 1 March 2007
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to review previously published models of municipal solid waste generation and to propose an implemen-tation guideline which will provide a compromise between information gain and cost-eYcient model development. The 45 modelling approaches identiWed in a systematic literature review aim at explaining or estimating the present or future waste generation using eco-nomic, socio-demographic or management-orientated data. A classiWcation was developed in order to categorise these highly heteroge-neous models according to the following criteria – the regional scale, the modelled waste streams, the hypothesised independent variables and the modelling method. A procedural practice guideline was derived from a discussion of the underlying models in order to propose beneWcial design options concerning regional sampling (i.e., number and size of observed areas), waste stream deWnition and investigation, selection of independent variables and model validation procedures. The practical application of the Wndings was demonstrated with two case studies performed on diVerent regional scales, i.e., on a household and on a city level. The Wndings of this review are Wnally summa-rised in the form of a relevance tree for methodology selection.
© 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Waste management for municipal waste is considered a public service, providing citizens with a system of disposing of their waste in an environmentally sound and economi-cally feasible way. The amount and composition of waste generated comprise the basic information needed for the planning, operation and optimisation of waste manage-ment systems. The demand for reliable data concerning waste arising (waste generation) is implicitly included in the majority of national waste management laws. More explic-itly, waste legislation requires assessment of the current waste arising and forecasts, such as in Ireland (Dennison et al., 1996a) and in Germany, where the competent public authorities (cities or counties (“Kreise”)) are required to assure “guaranteed disposal” for a period of 10 years in advance (cf. Sircar et al., 2003).
This entails a demand for reliable information on waste quantity and composition, which is diYcult to achieve on a disaggregated level. Other than in more centralised infra-structures like electricity supply (where the consumption of each single end-user can be measured), waste generation can not be measured directly. Typically, in waste disposal systems there are several parallel disposal channels (e.g., public curbside collection; civic amenity sites for green waste, bulky waste, etc.; private collectors of, e.g., clothing textiles; take back by retailers). The waste arising on a sin-gle household basis is measured only in rare situations, e.g., in areas where Pay-As-You-Throw systems have been installed. Thus waste generation cannot be measured on a detailed basis, which would allow further evaluation of dis-posal habits, changes and trends. In this case modelling is of particular importance.
Models and data from models are used in the planning of waste management systems, including:
– the development of waste-management strategies ( Dask-alopoulos et al., 1998);
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 1 3189900 319; fax: +43 1 3189900 350.
– the planning of waste collection services (Grossman et al., 1974) and infrastructures (Dennison et al., 1996a) or treatment facilities and capacities (e.g., the capacity
evaluation of MSW incinerators by Chang and Lin,
1997); and
– land demand for facilities, especially in the context of landWlling waste (Leao et al., 2001).
For the operation of waste management systems, waste generation related planning data have an essential inXuence on:
– personnel and truck utilisation (Matsuto and Tanaka,
1993), as well as operational costs (Grossman et al., 1974) with respect to collection and transportation; and – monitoring of systems (e.g., assessing eVects of waste
prevention action, recycling activities, etc. (cf. OECD, 2004)).
They serve as a basis for further improvements and opti-misation in terms of sustainability (environmental, eco-nomic and societal) targets.
The objective of this paper is to review previously pub-lished models of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation and to propose an implementation guideline which will provide a compromise between information gain and cost-eYcient model development. Models that focus on the esti-mation, explanation or prediction of the whole, or parts of
the MSW stream were reviewed. These streams can be de
W-ned either according to composition of MSW (regardless of where collected) or to means of collection (separate or com-mingled). Numerous, mainly statistically based modelling approaches have been published in the literature since 1974,
with more than 50 papers addressing the broader Weld of
this topic published through the end of 2005. In this paper, the classiWcation of these models is described in Section 2, in order to structure the highly heterogeneous approaches. Focussing on crucial design options within the modelling procedure, Section 3 discusses the beneWts and shortcom-ings of the models. Derived recommendations are summa-rised in a comprehensive guideline. These Wndings concerning relevant requirements for waste generation modelling are then demonstrated with two case studies in a more detailed way focussing on model applications at diVerent regional scales in Section 4. The conclusions of this review are given in Section 5, including a relevance tree for methodology selection.
2. ClassiWcation of waste generation models
To date, policies promoting greater sustainability in
waste management have not been followed by equal eVorts
to boost adequate knowledge about waste generation. Climbing up the waste management hierarchy from land-Wlling, energy recovery, and material recycling up to waste minimisation will lead to increasing data complexity, thus requiring more detailed information on waste generation
and composition (ParWtt and Flowerdew, 1997). In spite of the fact that decision-support orientated waste manage-ment models, such as cost beneWt analyses, life cycle analy-ses and multicriteria decision analyanaly-ses, have been established over the last decades (Morrissey and Browne, 2004), waste generation models, which deal with the under-lying, indispensable planning fundamentals, are lagging behind and are far from reaching general modelling stan-dards. Due to the multitude of possible research design options, a high heterogeneity of models – from purely application-oriented up to highly sophisticated tools – is available.
A systematic review of 45 waste generation modelling approaches revealed four characteristic classiWcation crite-ria: regional scale, type of modelled waste streams, type of independent variables and modelling method. Brief descrip-tions in the following chapters aim at presenting represen-tative, as well as notably dissenting, design options. An overview of the reviewed studies according to these criteria, as well as other main characteristics, is shown in Table 1.
2.1. Regional scale
The regional scale refers to the size of the smallest identi-Wable sample unit observed in each study. The deWnition of each category is based on existing administrative units, except for settlement areas, where the socio-economic homogeneity of each area was considered by the study authors. Closely related to this criterion, the data sources used for waste-related data and for independent factors are described in the following sections. Table 2 mentions the ranges of size and number of observed regional units, as well as all databases used concerning the independent vari-ables.
2.1.1. Households
Household studies enable relationships between waste quantity and a broad set of individual characteristics or habits of either the household itself or the household’s rep-resentative to be analysed. Reprep-resentativeness is strived for through appropriate sample sizes (ranging from 40 to 857), which are stratiWed by income (Abu Qdais et al., 1997) or age and education level (Lebersorger, 1998; Pladerer, 1999) or are based on a random sampling contingent on the elec-toral register (Dennison et al., 1996a). Waste generated within the investigated period (due to the high eVorts involved limited to 3 weeks and 6 mo) is collected, sepa-rated by 6 up to 36 fractions and documented; these tasks are partly carried out by the participants themselves. Household characteristics are mainly gained by personal interviews and surveys, as census data are not available on individual level due to data protection issues.
2.1.2. Settlement areas
Positive experience with regard to the relationship between settlement structure and waste generation charac-teristics (cf. Christiani, 1997) corroborate the selection of
homogeneous settlement areas as the sample unit. Homoge-neity of settlement density and dwelling types in a given area is assumed to implicitly control variables such as income, employment status and household size. The selected areas often correspond to the smallest administra-tive units, e.g., census blocks with several hundred
inhabit-ants (Grossman et al., 1974; Lebersorger, 2004) or
enumeration districts with approximately 400–600
house-holds (ParWtt and Flowerdew, 1997). An exception with
much larger areas, housing approximately 80,000 inhabit-ants per area, was described by Emery et al. (2003). House-hold waste analyses typically cover the documentation of collected waste quantities and sorting analyses of samples from selected collection rounds or containers. Data sources for independent variables cover census data from statistical
oYces, market-research based geo-demographic
classiWca-tion packages (e.g., ACORN (cf. ParWtt and Flowerdew,
1997)) and questionnaire surveys.
Table 1
Characteristics of the reviewed models
n.c. – no comment.
HH – Households; DI – Districts; SA – Settlement area; CO – Country.
HWF – Household waste fractions; CS – Collection streams; MS – Material streams.
C – Consumption-related; D – Disposal-related; P – Production and trade-related variables; GC – Group comparison; CA – Correlation analysis; MR – Multiple regression analysis; SR – Single regression analysis; IOA – Input–output analysis; TSA – Time-series analysis; SD – System dynamics.
a Sorting campaigns in 37 regions.
Reference Regions Time series length Waste streams Independent variables type Modelling method Type Units Datasets Interval Type Number
Abu Qdais et al. (1997) HH 40 21 d HWF 6 C GC, CA
Bach et al. (2003) DI 1071 – – CS 5 C, D MR
Bach et al. (2004) DI 649 – – CS 1 C, D MR
Becker (1999) SA 6 – – CS 2 C GC
Beigl et al. (2004) DI 55 622 y CS, HWF 6 C, D MR, SR
Beigl et al. (2005) DI 27 2 8 y CS 1 C SR
Bogner and Matthews (2003) CO 31 4–7 y CS 1 C SR
Bogner et al. (1993) CO 13 – – CS 1 P, C SR
Brahms and Schwitters (1985) CO 1 – – MS 20 P, C IOA
Chang and Lin (1997) DI 12 60 m CS 1 D TSA
Chen and Chang (2000) DI 1 14 y CS 1 – TSA
Christiani (1997) SA 33 – – HWF 29 C, D GC, SR
Christiansen and Fischer (1999) CO 14 614 y MS, CS 3 P, C TSA
Daskalopoulos et al. (1998) CO 2 24 y MS 6 C SR
Dennison et al. (1996a,b) HH 857 – – HWF 36 C, D GC, CA
Dyson and Chang (2005) DI 4 3 10 y CS 1 C SD
Eder (1983) DI 260 11 6 w HWF 14 C, D GC, SR
Emery et al. (2003) SA 3 3 w HWF 30 C, D GC
European Commission (2002) SA n.c.a n.c. n.c. HWF n.c. C, D GC
Franklin Associates (1999) CO 1 39 y MS 10 P, C IOA
Gay et al. (1993) DI 1 – – MS 5 P, C IOA
Grossman et al. (1974) SA 103 – – CS 1 C MR
Hekkert et al. (2000) CO 1 – – MS 62 P IOA
Hockett et al. (1995) DI 100 – – CS 1 P, C, D MR
Jenkins (1993) DI 9 6108 m CS 2 P, C, D MR
Joosten et al. (2000) CO 1 – – MS 15 P IOA
Karavezyris et al. (2002) DI 1 n.c. n.c. CS 3 D SD
Katsamaki et al. (1998) DI 1 260 d CS 1 C TSA
Leao et al. (2001) DI 1 n.c. n.c. CS 1 C TSA
Lebersorger (1998) HH 50 626 w CS 7 C GC, SR
Lebersorger (2004) SA 6 – – HWF 10 C, D GC
Martens and Thomas (1996) DI 44 4 y CS 2 C, D GC, SR
Matsuto and Tanaka (1993) DI 1 365 d CS 2 C TSA
McBean and Fortin (1993) DI n.c. 14 y CS 2 C GC, SR
Navarro-Esbrí et al. (2002) DI 3 6730 m/d CS 1 C TSA
OECD (2004) CO 16 5 5 y CS 1 C TSA
ParWtt and Flowerdew (1997) SA 31 – – HWF 11 C GC
ParWtt et al. (2001) DI 375 – – CS 3 D GC
Patel et al. (1998) CO 1 – – MS n.c. P IOA
Pladerer (1999) HH 50 626 w CS 7 C GC, SR
Rhyner and Green (1988) DI 1 4 y CS 1 C GC
RuVord (1984) HH n.c. – – HWF n.c. C, D GC
Salhofer and Graggaber (1999) DI 118 – – CS 1 C, D MR
Skovgaard et al. (2005) CO 629 618 y MS, CS 4 P, C TSA
2.1.3. Districts
Both the competence of regional planning and the ready availability of data justify the fact that the majority of the models selected districts as the smallest regional unit (cf. Hockett et al., 1995). The term ‘district’ is here deWned as administrative unit, which may correspond to municipal-ity, county, city district or city. This research design enables the achieving of full coverage of federal states (ParWtt et al., 2001; Hockett et al., 1995; Salhofer and Graggaber, 1999) or cities (Chang and Lin, 1997). If mod-elling is not limited to only one major region (Gay et al., 1993; Karavezyris et al., 2002), analysed samples cover up to several hundreds of essentially small and medium-sized municipalities (Bach et al., 2004). Several studies have doc-umented the use of time series on an annual (Beigl et al., 2004; Chen and Chang, 2000), monthly (Chang and Lin, 1997; Jenkins, 1993) or daily (Navarro-Esbrí et al., 2002; Matsuto and Tanaka, 1993) basis. While waste quantity statistics, and in some cases also sporadically conducted sorting analyses, are used as waste data, census and eco-nomic data in addition to waste management-related
information (Chang and Lin, 1997; Martens and Thomas,
1996) and expert interviews (cf. Karavezyris and Marzi, 1999; Karavezyris, 2001) are used for modelling of the independent variables.
2.1.4. Countries
Models on this highest aggregation level can be classi-Wed into three types: input–output, cross-sectional and time-series analyses. While the Wrst type aims at estimating waste streams, such as plastics (Patel et al., 1998; Joosten
et al., 2000), paper and wood (Hekkert et al., 2000) or all
main fractions of the MSW (Franklin Associates, 1999;
Brahms and Schwitters, 1985) in a single country, the other two regression-based methods focus on comparisons between countries and/or in time by means of aggregated variables, such as the gross domestic product (GDP) ( Tho-gersen, 1996; Mertins et al., 1999), private consumption expenditures for all (OECD, 2004), deWned product items (Daskalopoulos et al., 1998; Christiansen and Fischer, 1999; Skovgaard et al., 2005) or various other indicators as shown in a cross-sectional comparison of 13
OECD-coun-tries by Bogner et al. (1993). The usual data sources
include nationally aggregated waste quantities on an annual basis, census-related and economic data from sta-tistical oYces, and data from industry and trade associa-tions.
2.2. Modelled MSW waste streams
The waste streams modelled in the reviewed studies can be classiWed into three concepts (Fig. 1):
– Material streams (Type A): This most comprehensive deWnition, addressing all wastes originating from the Wnal consumer, is only achieved by means of input–out-put analyses. Due to its nature, this method is not aimed at considering the collection procedure applied. Waste quantity records, if surveyed, are not essential for the model results and may be used only for validation (see Chapter 2.4). In some studies (Daskalopoulos et al., 1998; Christiansen and Fischer, 1999; Skovgaard et al., 2005),
Table 2
Characteristics of waste generation models by regional scale
Regional units observed Households Settlement areas Districts Country
Typical range of residents by unit 1–7 1200–10,000 60,000–3.5 Mio. 10–270 Mio. Number of regional units 40–857 3–103 1–1071 1–31
Data sources for dependent variables
Full sorting analysis
Representative sorting analysis Waste quantity statistics Waste quantity statistics Self-documented
waste quantity
Waste quantity statistics Representative sorting analysis
Data sources for independent variables
Household interview
Census Census Census
Household questionnaire survey
Household questionnaire survey Branch-speciWc statistics Branch-speciWc statistics
Waste-management related documentations of infrastructure and activities
Waste-management related
documentations of infrastructure and activities
Household budget survey
Waste-management related
documentations of infrastructure and activities Macroeconomic aggregate Product-related literature and statistics
results from other input–output analyses are used as dependent variables.
– Collection streams (Type B): Predominantly, oYcial
waste statistics are used in modelling of the total MSW collected (e.g., Leao et al., 2001; Beigl et al., 2004; Chen and Chang, 2000; Thogersen, 1996; ParWtt et al., 2001; Hockett et al., 1995; Bogner and Matthews, 2003) or sin-gle collection streams, such as residual waste (Becker, 1999; Chang and Lin, 1997; Grossman et al., 1974; Jen-kins, 1993; Martens and Thomas, 1996; Dyson and Chang, 2005), the sum of all recyclables (ParWtt et al., 2001) or single recyclable materials, such as paper and cardboard, glass, plastics or metals (Bach et al., 2003, 2004; Lebersorger, 1998; Pladerer, 1999). Beside the oYcially reported waste streams, signiWcant quantitative interchanges to other disposal options, such as private Wring (Salhofer and Graggaber, 1999; Dennison et al., 1996a), illegal disposal (Karavezyris et al., 2002) or informal collection (cf. Fehr et al., 2000), are addressed by a few models.
– Fractions of household waste (Type C): Models based on sorting analyses of commingled or residual wastes, respectively, from curbside collection enable the analy-sis of its composition, taking into account a range of 6 (Abu Qdais et al., 1997) to 36 (Dennison et al., 1996a) categories.
2.3. Independent variables
Salhofer (2001) has classiWed models for the analysis of waste generation into two categories: input–output mod-els based on the Xow of material to waste generators (input) or from waste generators (output) and factor
mod-els that use factors describing the processes of waste gen-eration. While the Wrst classiWcation focuses on the purely descriptive characterisation of waste streams over the stages in product life cycle (from production, over trade to consumption), the second classiWcation aims at unveiling hypothesised causal relationships between factors for the prediction of waste generation. Sircar et al. (2003) have proposed horizontal and vertical factors for the predic-tion of municipal waste quantities. Horizontal factors describe the processes of interchanges between diVerent waste types. As an example, shifts between residual waste, bulky waste, recyclables and illegally disposed waste are mainly caused by diVerent modes of separate collection and do not aVect the total waste quantity. Vertical factors are due to changes of the total sum of all waste streams depending on demographic, economic, technical and social developments.
Many independent variables have been hypothesised and tested in order to explain the quantity of total or par-tial streams of MSW. These have partly been summarised in previous reviews by Salhofer (2001), Beigl et al. (2003), Hockett et al. (1995) and Jenkins (1993). According to the above mentioned categories, grouping is based on the focussed stages in product life cycle: production and trade-related, consumption-trade-related, and disposal-related variables.
Data concerning production and trade contain direct or indirect information about the quantity of product and waste streams over successive processing stages, at least on the level of product groups. As mass-related data are rarely available (Joosten et al., 1999), monetary data are predomi-nantly converted into physical data by surveying, assuming or statistically estimating (e.g., waste generated per GDP
Fig. 1. Concepts of waste stream modelling (Bars of sub-streams are labelled schematically). Concepts of waste stream modelling
Organic material Commingled waste Organic material Organic material Paper Paper Glass Glass Paper Plastics Plastics Glass Metals Plastics Metals Other materials Other collection streams Other materials
Material streams Collection streams
Municipal solid waste collected on behalf of the munici-pality Material-related waste streams Source separated waste streams Commingled (residual) waste Material fractions within commingled (residual) waste Fractions of household waste A C Illegal disposal Informal collection Other disposal options
unit as done by Thogersen (1996), Bogner et al. (1993) and Mertins et al. (1999)) the price per product unit. Gay et al. (1993) used conversion factors that were based on surveys of at least three major waste generators in each sector cate-gory of the standard-industrial-code (SIC). Joosten et al. (1999) proposed diVerent options due to data availability; the mean prices per material or product unit for each indus-try is given priority over average retail prices based on national statistics and data from market inquiries, if avail-able. In order to consider the diVerences in the use phase, product-related surveys of the ‘residence time’ (i.e., the duration of the use phase) enable the assessment of waste generated (Patel et al., 1998).
Evaluations of consumption-related variables reXect the relationship between living conditions and waste generation patterns. Further to the well documented impacts of residen-tial population and sporadically dwelling tourists on total
MSW quantity (Hockett et al., 1995; Salhofer and
Grag-gaber, 1999; Bach et al., 2004), most of these variables serve as proxies for the general level of aZuence. This is especially true for the variables related to income (Hockett et al., 1995; Jenkins, 1993; RuVord, 1984), tenure (i.e., tenancy) of prop-erty (RuVord, 1984; Dennison et al., 1996a), rental rate of property (Abu Qdais et al., 1997; Grossman et al., 1974) and the private consumption expenditures by product groups (OECD, 2004; Christiansen and Fischer, 1999; Daskalopou-los et al., 1998) for which most, but not all (cf. Jenkins, 1993), of the evaluations proved the expected positive relationship. Other signiWcant aZuence-related proxies are represented by dwelling type (Emery et al., 2003; ParWtt and Flowerdew, 1997; Dennison et al., 1996a), employment status (Dennison et al., 1996a; RuVord, 1984; Bach et al., 2004), and popula-tion density and urbanisapopula-tion (Martens and Thomas, 1996; Jenkins, 1993; Eder, 1983), as well as development and health indicators, such as life expectancy and infant mortal-ity (Bogner et al., 1993; Beigl et al., 2004, 2005). Apart from the mentioned aZuence-related indicators, individual char-acteristics of households – namely the household size ( Denn-ison et al., 1996b; Jenkins, 1993; RuVord, 1984), the age structure (Jenkins, 1993; Sircar et al., 2003; RuVord, 1984; Beigl et al., 2004), the life-cycle stage of the household (Lebersorger, 1998; RuVord, 1984) or consumption habits (Dennison et al., 1996a; Lebersorger, 1998) observed by means of household interviews – proved to be signiWcant.
The third group of signiWcant variables contains dis-posal-related factors which may aVect horizontal shifts between waste types. The employment by sectors, as well as branch-speciWc sales data, were successfully used as proxy for the percentage of commercial waste (Bach et al., 2004; Martens and Thomas, 1996; Hockett et al., 1995; Gay et al., 1993). SigniWcant impacts on the quantity of source-sepa-rated recyclables are the home heating arrangement ( Denn-ison et al., 1996a; Salhofer and Graggaber, 1999), fostered recycling activities (cf. Haase, 2000), container size ( Mar-tens and Thomas, 1996; Eder, 1983), density of collection sites (Bach et al., 2004; ParWtt et al., 2001) and user fees (Jenkins, 1993; Hockett et al., 1995).
2.4. Modelling methods
The review revealed how a wide range of modelling
techniques of diVerent levels of complexity have been
applied to date. Seven groups of applied methods could be identiWed as enumerated in Table 1. DiVerences between the methodological characteristics can best be described by addressing the number of independent variables, the method of model validation and the applicability for pre-dictions.
Methods enabling the consideration of only one inde-pendent variable (i.e., bivariate analysis) cover the time series analyses, correlation and regression analyses and group comparison. A common feature of these methods is that the model validation is based on real waste data. Some of these approaches can be extended to
multivari-ate models using up to Wve parameters. ParWtt et al.
(2001) used Wve collection-infrastructure-related vari-ables as cluster criteria for a successive group compari-son. Skovgaard et al. (2005) applied a three-parametric time series model. A method without the use of any inde-pendent variable (except the time series data with at least three values) was proposed by a projection with a grey
fuzzy dynamic model proposed by Chen and Chang
(2000). In addition to time series approaches, quantita-tive predictions can also be applied by means of single regression analysis as shown by a prediction model for
main material fractions of MSW by Daskalopoulos et al.
(1998).
Multivariate methods, such as multiple regression anal-yses, system dynamics and input–output analanal-yses, are far more complex due to the manifold interactions between the selected parameters. Therefore, model validation is often very diYcult or impossible to achieve. While in the case of regression models, analyses (cf. Grossman et al., 1974; Hockett et al., 1995) have to prove that each inde-pendent variable meets the stringent requirements (i.e., independence of explanatory variables, and constant vari-ance and normality of errors) to not violate the fundamen-tal regression assumptions; comparable validation procedures (e.g., to prevent intercorrelations) have not been applied for the other two methods. Regarding input– output analyses, Joosten et al. (2000) and Hekkert et al. (2000) highlight the problem that comparisons of the results obtained with the model with externally observed waste quantities on the highest aggregation levels are ques-tionable due to the presence of diVerent aggregations or low consistency within the studies, or may even prove to be impossible because “studies on Wnal consumption are almost completely lacking” e.g., for plastic materials. Brahms and Schwitters (1985) compared their input–out-put analysis for main MSW fractions with a nationwide sorting analysis in Germany on the highest aggregation level proving low estimation errors for the packaging materials metals, paper/cardboard and plastics (<4%), but considerable errors for packaging glass (39%), textiles (16%) and organic waste (36%).
3. Discussion of design options and guideline development
Models contributing to the improved estimation of pres-ent and future waste quantities and characteristics are aimed at enabling the best possible waste management planning decisions within the given constraints. Thus, the adjustment of research design is mostly induced – either explicitly or implicitly – by Wnding an appropriate trade-oV between information gain and cost-eYciency (cf. Gay et al., 1993; Chen and Chang, 2000). In order to enable the identi-Wcation of beneWcial modelling procedures in terms of these two often contradictory goals, crucial design options con-cerning
– regional sampling,
– waste stream deWnition and investigation,
– selection of independent variables to be hypothesised, and
– model validation
are discussed below by presenting beneWts and short-comings of the reviewed literature and summarised in a proposed procedural guideline.
3.1. Regional sampling
Both the size and the number of regions to be observed represent crucial design parameters. The selection of exces-sively large, too few or too many observed regional units may challenge the usefulness, as well as the cost-eYciency, of an investigation for planning issues.
With regard to the size of observed units, a consoli-dated waste strategy should be accompanied by the appropriate regional discretisation of a model. ParWtt and Flowerdew (1997) illustrate the close relationship between the focus in waste management hierarchy and the typical data requirements. While the focus on material recycling requires the “local authority monitoring of recycling schemes” in order to design material recovery facilities, the focus on the more sustainable waste minimisation and material reuse strategies should be funded on household-waste audits and surveys to enable the identiWcation of “waste-creating activities”. Based on this argumentation concerning the political appropriateness of the size unit (cf. Hockett et al., 1995), two-thirds of the reviewed mod-els (i.e., 31 out of a total of 45) focus on the scale of dis-tricts or smaller regional units. In contrast, the decision makers’ beneWt of some models, which are based on data related to countries or large regions, is often questionable. The modelling of waste potentials for the USA and for
whole Europe (Daskalopoulos et al., 1998) or even the
estimation of recycled, legally and illegally disposed waste quantities on the level of city with more than 3 million inhabitants (Karavezyris et al., 2002) can not provide rele-vant information about the regional variation, and thus can not serve as a basis for waste management planning on a regional level.
As the sample size of inquiries, such as questionnaire surveys, interviews and accompanying sorting analyses is regarded as one of the main cost drivers (cf. ScharV, 1991), cost-saving methods with a small number of observations (depending on number of observed units and time series length as shown in Table 1) were proposed. In the follow-ing, the most extreme cases, these are modelling methods which focus on only one region (i.e., input–output analyses and time-series analyses) are discussed. These models have to cope with the problem that hypotheses about the poten-tial impacts on waste generation can be proved only in spe-cial cases, if no other sources (e.g., accompanying cross-sectional analyses (e.g., McBean and Fortin, 1993)) are used. The successful identiWcation of seasonal impacts (Matsuto and Tanaka, 1993; Navarro-Esbrí et al., 2002) or weekly collection service patterns (Katsamaki et al., 1998) by applying time-series analyses of daily data over up to 2 years is indisputable. More questionable is the deduction of hypothesised causal impacts in the long term. The identiW-cation of the most signiWcant variable is often assumed to depend on the best relationship between the time series related to waste generation and that related to a factor, although this fact may not have been proven by cross-sec-tional analyses (e.g., OECD, 2004; Skovgaard et al., 2005). A further potential limitation to the gaining of information is constituted by the missing balance between the sample size and the complexity of a model, as discussed in Section 3.4.
Cost-ineYcient sampling occurs, if the size of the sample is too high in relation to the needed level of accuracy
with-out leading to a signiWcant information gain. Dennison
et al. (1996a) conducted 857 sorting analyses on household level, although the calculated required sample size for a
95% conWdence interval was 384 sorting analyses. Abu
Qdais et al. (1997) could have avoided 24% of the 840 sam-ples evaluated by selecting the usually applied 95% conW-dence interval instead of a 99% conWconW-dence interval. Furthermore, the ambitious inquiry of waste collection data of Bach et al. (2003) from 1071 municipalities seems to far succeed the statistical requirements of a regression model.
3.2. Waste stream deWnition and investigation
The number and type (cf. Section 2.2) of scoped waste streams, as well as the level of accuracy of discrimination, exert an essential impact on the eVorts to collect waste-related data and the information content of the planning fundamentals.
Depending on the type of waste streams deWned (collec-tion streams or household waste frac(collec-tions), experience gained in the reviewed studies suggests beneWcial ranges of the number of observed waste streams in order to identify an appropriate balance between information gain and eVorts. The majority of models based on collection-stream data apply total MSW generation as only one dependent variable. A common variety with two considered collection
streams (i.e., dependent variables) is the deWnition of a recy-cling and a commingled stream (Becker, 1999; Martens and Thomas, 1996; ParWtt et al., 2001; Karavezyris et al., 2002). Further often expensive disaggregation into material-related recycling streams (e.g., waste paper and waste glass) does not aVord any useful information due to the impossi-bility of identifying whether varying collection quantities (e.g., in time or between regional units) are subject to a diVerent level of aZuence or to diVerent recycling quotas. For models based on sorting analyses of household waste, the results showed that 6 up to 14 main categories are su Y-cient for evaluations. It is not advantageous to consider more categories or sub-categories of fractions as needed for the study objective, as done by Emery et al. (2003) with 30 sorting categories. If input–output analyses are applied, no recommendations can be given as the number of considered material and product streams depend on the amount of detail provided by data sources.
InsuYcient deWnition and standardisation of MSW is a well known problem, and experiences concerning the diVer-ences between MSW and household waste have been reported (Fischer and Crowe, 2000). Frequently, the inves-tigated waste streams are not transparently deWned, so it is hardly comprehensible which (collection or material-related) streams are covered and how much information exists concerning the quantity and quality of the excluded streams. Related limitations were openly reported in only a few cases. One of these was the criticism made by ParWtt and Flowerdew (1997) of the United Kingdom’s National Household Waste Analysis Programme, who stated that the deWned term “household waste” covered only the waste from curbside collection, while 33% of the household waste, mainly from civic amenity sites, had not been taken into consideration due to the inappropriate sampling procedure. Without any quantitative information as to the separately collected materials in three settlement areas, Emery et al. (2003) traced the lowest amount of newspapers in house-hold waste in the highest-income settlement area back to the fact of high recycling rates because “newspapers pur-chased by more aZuent households tend to be larger”. In both cases, the inclusion of collection data other than that pertaining to curbside collection sites would close this gap between the curbside collected stream and the complete col-lection stream.
Distortions of MSW streams related to other sources (e.g., commercial waste, tourism) or waste-related activities (private burning of waste, illegal disposal) remain sub-merged, but can be successfully estimated using appropriate proxy variables as described in Section 2.3 (cf. Hockett et al., 1995).
3.3. Selecting independent variables to be hypothesised
Still in the conception stage of model development, it can often be pre-estimated whether a draft model with a deWned set of hypothesised variables will be able to satisfy the basic information needs of waste management planners:
timeli-ness of data, applicability for predictions and suYcient data quality. Appropriately quick reactions on new waste genera-tion trends require the provision of models based on timely databases. Here the delay between reference year of the last observed waste-related data and the publication year was taken as benchmark. In most models, a delay of up to 3 years was reported. It is notable that models based on exten-sive databases, namely input–output analyses and selected multiple regression models with a high number of hypothes-ised factors, are far from serving relevant up-to-date infor-mation. A comparison of the reference year of core databases and the Wrst publication date of each study proves delays of 7 (Brahms and Schwitters, 1985), 9 (Patel et al., 1998), 10 (Joosten et al., 2000; Hekkert et al., 2000) up to 12 years (Bach et al., 2003). Thus this diVerence points out the relevance of the up-to-date nature of existing primary data in order to support the strategic decisions based thereon. The necessity of up-to-date data can be supported with the considerable changes based on time-series data of European countries from the years 1995–2003; the growth of MSW generation within 8 years ranges up to 50% (e.g., Ireland, Malta), while source-separated waste streams nearly triple in some cases (e.g., paper and cardboard collected in France, Italy and Ireland or organic waste collected in France) (European Communities, 2005).
The main objective of several models is to provide a pre-diction tool. The reader should be enabled to make inter-temporal forecasts or inter-regional predictions. Unfortu-nately, the majority of these models are often unusable due to the lack of underlying data for the model parameters. For example, forecasted values for variables, such as prod-uct-related fractions of total consumer expenditures on a national level (Daskalopoulos et al., 1998) or actual indices of purchasing power per capita on a municipal level (Bach et al., 2004), are very probably not available for the waste management planners. A useful solution to this problem is proposed by Skovgaard et al. (2005), who provide forecasts for all necessary predictors for MSW forecasts to potential users. Further improvement can be gained by the use of parameters which are both easily comparable and predict-able, such as socio-economic variables (cf. Section 4.2).
The more independent variables are hypothesised, col-lected and evaluated, the more diYcult it is to guarantee a level of data quality. The implementation of data-intensive approaches can be signiWcantly limited or aggravated by problems of data availability and comparability. Further to the above mentioned problems of data obsolescence, incon-sistent deWnitions and a lack of data are cost-relevant drivers, especially for input–output analyses based on up to thou-sands of independent variables. With reference to indirect waste analyses using market-research data, Fehringer et al. (2004) pointed out the cost-eVectiveness of this method, whilst stating, however, that “the greater the lack of data, the more time and eVort has to be put in to achieve reasonable results”. Assumptions and estimations usually have to be made to allocate mass Xows within product groups, to trans-form prices into physical units (cf. Gay et al., 1993) and to
assume residence times per product (cf. Patel et al., 1998). A possible countermeasure would be to check data availability and comparability during a preliminary examination prior to the Wnal deWnition of research design.
3.4. Model validation
The accuracy of model results (i.e., the main model char-acteristics and selection criterion for practitioners of pre-diction tools according to Armstrong, 2001) can be limited
or distorted for two reasons: insuYcient validation of
model and model parameters and lack of balance between oversimpliWcation and overWtting.
3.4.1. Validation with waste data
In the present paper, model validity is deWned as internal validity or the capability of the model to explain the depen-dent variable ‘waste quantity’. It has an indirect, although not constraining, impact on the more relevant external validity, i.e., the ability to generalise the results obtained to diVerent temporal or spatial settings.
While validity was tested for group comparisons, correla-tion and regression models by means of common statistical tests, comprehensive validity tests were not conducted for all reviewed system dynamics models and input–output models. The reviewed system dynamics models enable simulations of interconnected variables, whose hypothesised relationships (e.g., between household size and waste generation) are deter-ministically deWned, but not stochastically tested. Input–out-put analyses are also deterministic models, which are typically not based on stochastically assumed variables.
3.4.2. Balancing model complexity
Waste generation models that are either exceedingly sim-ple or too comsim-plex can provide inappropriate results. The level of complexity necessary depends on both the number
of applied parameters and their functional form. An unfa-vourable ratio between the identiWed degrees of freedom to the sample size may cause overWtting or oversimpliWcation of the model (Tabachnik and Fidell, 1989).
Models with an excessively high number of partly non-linear parameters tend to unduly Wt to the data in the sam-ple. The impact of overWtting of intercorrelated variables to variations due to measurement errors maximises the per-centage of variance explained (e.g., correlation coeYcient), but limits the ability of the results to be generalised. With the exception of model-speciWc tests (e.g., collinearity tests and tests of residues), the fundamental rule that the sample size should exceed more than twofold the number of parameters (Backhaus et al., 2003) may be of help in orien-tation. Indeed, the application of this condition strengthens the suspicion that Jenkins’ (1993) 27-parametric forecasting model for the separate estimation of both residential and commercial waste based on only nine areas may be aVected by this phenomenon. Table 3 shows how the sample size of multiple regression models typically exceeds by 30-fold up to 90-fold the number of parameters. Furthermore, the seemingly arbitrary selection of non-linear regression func-tions of higher order, as presented by Daskalopoulos et al. (1998), Bogner et al. (1993) and Bach et al. (2004), should
be transparently justiWed with objective relationships
between the variables to prove that they are not based solely on the maximisation of R2. An additional problem may be represented by the increased diYculty of interpret-ing models with more than ten parameters, likely implyinterpret-ing a decreased practicability for waste managers.
On the contrary, the potential information gain could easily be increased in the case of an oversimpliWed model design. Extensive survey-based databases, e.g., from Denni-son et al. (1996a), could be used in multivariate procedures instead of single correlation analysis, as proposed by Leber-sorger (2004), in order to ascertain existing relationships
Table 3
Models based on multivariate regression equations
n.c. – no comment.
a Time series from 55 cities.
b Includes waste from the residential and commercial sector. c Time series from 9 communities.
d 13 regressors and 14 regional dummy variables.
Reference Dependent variable (in kg/cap/yr, if not otherwise stated)
Sample size (n) IdentiWed parameters
Explained variance (R2)
Bach et al. (2003) Residual waste 1071 14 0.50
Waste glass 507 7 0.53
Light weight packaging – collected in bringsystem 71 3 0.400 Light weight packaging – curbside collection 216 7 0.388
Waste metals 156 7 0.538
Bach et al. (2004) Waste paper 649 8 0.487
Beigl et al. (2004) MSW 550a 6 0.65
Grossman et al. (1974) MSW (Gallons/week) 103 3 0.36
Hockett et al. (1995) MSW 100 2 0.497
Jenkins (1993) Residual wasteb (Pounds/cap/month) 600c 27d 0.921
Residual wasteb (Pounds/cap/year) 49c 27d 0.998
between variables. Time-series based forecasting models taking into account no (Chen and Chang, 2000) or only one (Chang and Lin, 1997) exogenous impact could easily be improved by the inclusion of one or more aZuence-related census variable (e.g., based on parallel cross-sectional anal-yses) in order to increase long-term predictability.
3.5. Guideline development
Fig. 2 shows the guideline developed on the basis of the aforementioned Wndings for the evaluation of the research designs. This can be applied both in checking a waste gener-ation model prior to implementgener-ation or for evaluating the reliability of existing models.
4. Case studies
The selected regional scale of a waste generation model produces the highest impact on type of information gained
and eVorts required. The following two case studies demon-strate the beneWts and limits of two approaches on both a household and on a city level. In both cases, the application of the developed guideline will be discussed.
4.1. Case study 1: modelling on a household level
Case study 1 (cf. Lebersorger, 2004) was aimed at identi-fying inXuencing factors on waste generation from private households and at identifying indicators capable of fore-casting the amount of residual waste from a multifamily dwelling. Prior research had shown highly divergent per-capita quantities of residual waste from multi-family dwell-ings, for which no feasible explanation could be aVorded, even when taking into account the possibility of a diVerent recycling performance or the production of waste from sources other than households, i.e., garden or commercial waste. Thus, a multi-family dwelling was hypothesized as being occupied by households living under similar
stances with regard to income, family-situation, social stra-tum etc., thereby generating similar needs and resulting in similar quantities of residual waste.
For the survey, six multi-family dwellings were selected, each with more than 600 inhabitants and more than 320 households. As dependent variables, the quantities and composition of residual waste were determined at the level of a multi-family dwelling by means of composition analy-ses and weighing the contents of the waste containers. As independent variables, data on socio-demographic charac-teristics and household activities were investigated by means of a questionnaire survey applied to 334 households, thus including at least 50 households from each multi-fam-ily-dwelling.
The determination of waste-related data at the level of a multi-family dwelling was preferred over that of household level due to practical and methodical considerations (cf. Lebersorger et al., 2003):
– availability of aggregated information concerning a large number of households at reasonable costs and eVort.
– similar circumstances for all households in a given multi-family dwelling with regard to the recycling system, cost for housing, construction issues, neighbourhood etc. – little inXuence of the questionnaire survey on the actual
behaviour of the household. In multi-family dwellings it is not usually possible to determine waste quantities on a household level without involving the household itself. The awareness of participating in a scientiWc investiga-tion and the subjective feeling of “being controlled” will
likely aVect the households’ actual behaviour
(Haw-thorne or guinea-pig eVect).
These advantages were considered to outweigh the dis-advantage of not being able to attribute waste data to an individual household.
The data were analysed in two steps by means of contin-gency analyses and multiway frequency analyses.
1. Correlation between the quantity of a deWned waste component (data at the level of a multi-family dwelling) and relevant household activities (data at household-level): for example the inXuence of the frequency of food preparation, frequency of wasted food, consumption of fresh food, consumption of pre-packaged food etc. on the quantity of wasted food.
2. Correlation between household consumption activities and socio-demographic indicators (household type, age, income, life-cycle stage, educational level of the respon-dent), at household level.
Age and household type had an eVect on most of the
household activities, both the main eVects of either of them and the interaction of the two variables “age” and “house-hold type”. Due to the considerable eVect produced by the interaction “age” and “household type”, the composite
var-iable life-cycle stage (cf. Tabachnik and Fidell, 1989), which classiWes households according to number and age of adults and children, was considered an appropriate indicator. The results obtained illustrated how the presence of a high num-ber of elderly couples and singles was indicative of low waste quantities from a multi-family dwelling, whereas households with infants and schoolchildren were likely to generate the highest waste quantities.
However, population statistics do not generally provide such composite data and interaction eVects thus cannot be considered. Furthermore, interaction eVects, particularly three-way or higher eVects, are very diYcult to interpret. In terms of practical applicability, the eVects should be simpli-Wed.
In order to verify the results of the case study, detailed information concerning the socio-demographic characteris-tics and waste quantities from 10 multifamily dwellings, available from a former investigation (cf. Grassinger et al., 2000), were used. Fig. 3 shows the correlation between the quantities of residual waste of each multi-family dwelling and the household type and age (Kendall’s tau-b ¡0.293;
p D 0.000***). The higher the percentage share of
house-holds with children and the younger the residents, the higher was the waste quantity of the multifamily dwelling, which corroborates the results found in the Viennese case study.
It can be concluded that an investigation performed on both a multifamily-dwelling and household level may be of use when applied to clarify a speciWc research issue or to obtain detailed basic information. However, it is not appli-cable on a larger scale due to several limitations. The sam-ple-size is restricted by the eVort required to determine the waste quantities from a multifamily-dwelling (separate weighing, visual inspections required in order to check
potential inXuences on waste quantities such as garden
waste or commercial waste), as well as the eVort needed to survey the residents.
4.2. Case study 2: modelling on a city level
The objective of case study 2 (cf. Beigl et al., 2004) was the development of a long-term forecasting tool for the esti-mating of MSW generation in European cities. It was aimed at Wnding a suitable compromise between an appro-priate level of accuracy and validity, and a comparable ease of applicability by municipal oYcers as targeted users. The central hypothesis postulated a relationship between cen-sus-based, aZuence-related indicators and both the quan-tity of per-capita MSW generation.
An investigation carried out in association with six regional partners assessed the collection and inspection of waste-related data, as well as demographic and socio-eco-nomic indicators, in all major European cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants. Both regional data at city levels provided from local city representatives and national data from international organisations, such as the United Nations or OECD, were used. Based on the availability and
quality of data, 55 cities (from a total of 65) from the EU-25 countries were included in the study; these cities pre-sented an average time-series length of 10 years in the sam-ple providing both total MSW quantity and results for 14 national and city-related socio-economic indicators.
The selection of this research design based on cross-sec-tional time-series data on a city level was derived from the following practical and methodological considerations:
– waste generation on a city level serves as primary plan-ning information,
– data quality on a city level was assumed to have highest data quality for small regions (cf. Petersen et al., 1999), – knowledge of the time-shifted long-term developments
of waste generation and potential impacts was hypothes-ised by the authors to be generalisable for cities with a similar welfare level,
– availability of time series enabled testing of the Wnal model under real conditions.
Data analyses were carried out in two steps:
– Attribution of datasets to welfare-related groups using hierarchical cluster analyses: Each single dataset from a total of 550, representing the total MSW generation of a speciWc city in 1 year, was attributed to groups in order to fade out high welfare diVerences. Additionally, a pros-perity-related factor was modelled by means of principal component analysis.
– Regression between total MSW generation and indica-tors: For each of the three groups, regression equations were estimated using combined forward and backward regression. The most signiWcant, not inter-correlated variables were identiWed. Tests of collinearity, autocorre-lation and residual analyses agreed with the regression assumptions.
Both welfare-related and demographic indicators were identiWed as the most signiWcant parameters to explain the
Fig. 3. Ten multifamily-dwellings ranked by quantity of residual waste and distribution of their residents by household type (left Wgure) and age (right Wgure). Mfd: Multifamily dwelling; with children >10 y/<10 y: household with children older/younger than 10 years.
Mfd by quantity of residual waste (kg/cap/y)
196 169 163 160 130 129 90 87 86 63 % of households 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 household type with children >10 y with children <10 y couple single
Mfd by quantity of residual waste (kg/cap/y)
196 169 163 160 130 129 90 87 86 63 % of households 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Age elder (over 50) middle-age (35-49) young (up to 34) Table 4
Prosperity-related regression models for total MSW generation in European cities
a Except the logarithmic relationship of the infant mortality rate. b National indicators.
Prosperity level
Medium High Very high
IdentiWed linearamodel parameters on the dependent variable MSW generation (kg/cap/yr) (ranked in order of signiWcance)
Constant ¡360.657 276.529 359.536
GDP per capita (US-$ PPP, 1995 prices) 0.0156b 0.014b
Infant mortality rate (Deaths per 1000) ¡375.581b ¡126.485 ¡197.057
Urban population aged 15–59 years (%) 8.928
Household size (Pers/hh) ¡123.895
Life expectancy at birth (Years) 11.702
CoeYcient of determination (R2) 0.600 0.523 0.506
Limits and threshold values between groups (Approximate values resulting from hierarchical cluster analyses)
GDP per capita (US-$ PPP, 1995 prices) 3000 13,800 20,200 40,000
variation of total MSW generation. While the gross domes-tic product and infant mortality rate were identiWed as sig-niWcant parameters for high-income cities, the age structure, household size and both health indicators (i.e., infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth) proved capable of explaining variations observed in medium-income cities (Table 4).
In order to verify the expected forecasting accuracy, the dynamic modiWcation of the model was tested by means of ex-post forecasting. Thus the development of the actual MSW quantity was compared with the amount estimated
using the model parameter, and starting from a deWned
base year. The median relative error of the growth rate in MSW quantity of all cities’ time series (ranging between a length of 5 and 21 years) as key indicator for the accuracy amounted for 0.6%.
Based on a comparison of the procedure and the results with other forecasting tools by Beigl et al. (2004, 2005), it can be surmised that both the regional variation between cities on similar welfare-level and the temporal variation can be explained more suitably than with pure cross-sec-tional analyses (Bach et al., 2004), which do not allow for validation tests, and single time series analyses (e.g., Skovg-aard et al., 2005), which may be increasingly aVected by measurement errors, especially in short time series. An additional beneWt is the comparably ready availability of the applied demographic forecast data for the independent variables (cf. Lindh, 2003).
5. Conclusions
Assessments of impacts on current and future waste streams are essential and indispensable fundamentals in waste management planning. A literature review of previ-ously published approaches revealed a high heterogeneity of applied models, in spite of the fact that issues to be solved were remarkably similar. These models can best be described by four speciWc criteria: the focussed regional
scale, ranging from household up to country perspective; the type of modelled waste streams; the hypothesised inde-pendent variables and the modelling method.
A procedural guideline was developed in order to iden-tify crucial design options with signiWcant impacts on infor-mation gain and cost-eYciency of waste generation models. Based on a discussion of previous studies, beneWcial choices concerning regional sampling (i.e., number and size of observed areas), waste stream deWnition and investigation, selection of independent variables and model validation procedures were proposed. The implementation of the derived Wndings was practically demonstrated in two case studies with diVerent settings: a survey-based analysis of household waste generation at multi-family dwellings and a census-data-based development of a forecasting tool for cities. The comparison of both approaches corroborates the hypothesis that, due to the presence of various planning issues, the use of only one ‘optimum’ procedure is not su Y-cient for diVerent study objectives and border conditions. The setting of minimum requirements and criteria for mod-elling procedures should balance information gain and implementation costs.
Beside these general checklist-like recommendations, the adaptation of overall model design to the planning problem plays a fundamental role. The discussion revealed several shortcomings concerning the choice of methods to be used. Fig. 4 shows a proposed relevance tree for appropriate methodology selection. The main selection criterion is the type of waste streams to be investigated. In the majority of cases, correlation and regression analyses, as well as group comparisons, are the most beneWcial modelling methods, both to test the relationship between the level of aZuence and the generation of total MSW or a material-related frac-tion, and to identify signiWcant eVects of waste management activities on recycling quotas. The application of time series analyses and input–output analyses is advantageous for special information needs (e.g., assessment of seasonal eVects for short-term forecasts) or for appropriate data
Fig. 4. Relevance tree for methodology selection. Modeled
waste stream
Models based on sorting analyses
Separate collection streams
Analysis of impacts on material-related generation (i.e. the sum of fraction of
commingled waste and separated collected quantity)
Analysis of impacts on recycling quotas by fraction Assessment of seasonal impacts? Availability of timely secondary data on the focused
regional scale? Significant interchanges with other disposal options expected ? consumption-related variables
consumption and disposal-related variables
Time series analyses
based on monthly or daily records
Correlation and regression methods
to test mainly affluence-related impacts by analysing
Group comparisons and regression
to test effects of waste management activities on recycling quotas
Input -output analyses
Material streams (regardless of collection ) Total MSW Yes No Yes No
Commingled waste(percentage of total MSW)
Other collection streams
Yes No
availability. Sorting analyses are indispensable, if impacts on the quantity of separately collected waste streams (e.g., of recyclables) are to be quantiWed.
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