Assessment and mitigations of household waste collection transportation risks

Abstract

Collection and transportation of household waste in urban areas is a complex managerial, economic, ecologic and social challenge. Inhabitants of Latvia generate approximately 650 000 tons of waste annually, from which 590 000 tons are landfilled. Latvia has 10 sanitary waste landfills in operation, although, it has to be noted, that 9 of these landfills receive 50% of the overall waste amount for landfilling. One landfill in the Riga region - “Getlini”, which is biggest sanitary waste landfill in the Baltic states, receives annually about 290 000 tons of waste. On the one hand it is positive that waste is landfilled and all illegal dumpsites have been closed and recultivated; on the other hand, waste transportation to the landfills requires large number of vehicles, negative impacts from which pollute the environment. Free market in waste management sector will lead to significant increase of number of vehicles and logistics density, which will require complex strategic and managerial decisions. Large number of management companies within one region leads to excessive transportation activities. Waste collection and transportation processes also can have negative impacts, which may result in polluting the territory, air emissions, noise and other pollutions.

The purpose of this study is to elicit and analyse factors that have an impact on human health and environmental pollution. The paper will assess types of risks that can appear during waste management and transportation and provide recommendations on risk minimization.

The methods used in the research will be risk classification and their assessment, causal-loop method for decision-making.
One of the main findings as well as practical implications of the paper is the management decision making, which will decrease number of routes and their length, their doubling, revealing most hazardous territories, due to waste generation and recommendations for usage of different types of vehicles and containers.

Social implications - this paper will line out first steps in improvement of human health and environmental protection.

The originality of the paper is emphasized with the lack of similar studies in Latvia. The research will be of a value for specialists in the municipalities, responsible for waste management and for waste management companies, allowing improvement of their business model as well as to foresee and decrease operational risks and optimize transportation costs.

The research is limited to the analysis of household waste transportation.