Page 84 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

62 BACKGROUND AND FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLID WASTE ANALYSIS AND MINIMIZATION

Drawbacks and limitations of the study were

■ This study applied limited mathematics and no modeling to evaluate and predict
solid waste generation. Only means and variances were calculated, not expected
ranges.
■ Few insights were derived on solid waste generation and limited comparisons
between business groups.
■ The study was limited in that it only calculated per employee annual waste volumes
for each business group.
■ Did not include recycling waste generation or any recycling analysis, skewing total
waste generation depending on recycling rates of companies studied.
■ Only studied California businesses.
■ Used a 1-day sampling method to annualize generation rates, significantly increas-
ing the variance.
■ Measured generation in terms of volume not weight, increasing error due to level
of compaction (density).
■ Did not analyze financial issues of waste generation or recycling.

This study provided a good baseline and a simple estimation tool for solid waste
generation rates of individual Californian companies.

2.10.3 1995 COMMERCIAL GENERATION STUDY,
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA

From 1993 though 1995 the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of Palm Beach County
conducted a research study to determine the waste generation characteristics of com-
mercial property in Palm Beach County, Florida. The purpose of the study was to
determine the quantity of commercial solid waste generated and the relative genera-
tion rates of various types of commercial property (Solid Waste Authority of Palm
Beach County, 1995).
This study classified commercial properties into 54 different business groups.
Approximately 10 percent of all businesses in each type were sampled. The study ana-
lyzed the total tons of solid waste disposed of by each company surveyed. Waste lev-
els were normalized using floor space square footages of the facilities that generated
the waste. A total of 15,371 observations were made on 1501 outside containers
(dumpsters), an average of 10.24 observations per container. The final result of this
study was a listing of the 54 business types identified and the annual tonnage of waste
each business type generates per square foot of facility space. No useful raw data from
this study was available for this research.
Benefits and contributions of this study were

■ The research team physically collected the data, increasing the reliability.
■ Businesses were categorized into 54 groups that generate similar waste streams.
■ Annual solid waste generated per facility square foot for each group was
calculated.