CURBSIDE COLLECTION OF RECYCLABLES - II - SIMULATION AND ECONOMIC-ANALYSIS

Curbside collection of recyclable material can be expensive because th e inherent costs of curbside collection are high, but also because amo unts collected per residence are small compared to the total waste str eam, and extra activity may be required, such as sorting. In this pape r a simulation model is used to investigate the effect of collection m ethod and route characteristics on route time. The simulation models p resented calculate set-out amount based on route characteristics, set- out rate (SOR), and participation rate (PR). Route limes are estimated for various conditions: constant SOR, constant PR, and constant set-o ut amount. Furthermore, a method for using route time to estimate vehi cle and labor needs is presented, and used to estimate economic costs for one and two-person crew collection methods for the three simulatio n conditions mentioned above. The two-person crew is found to cost les s than the one-person crew, for most simulated conditions. (C) 1998 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.