Selection of variables for the croatian municipal solid waste generation model

Abstract

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated in households and enterprises because of everyday human consumption. The quantity (volume) of municipal solid waste depends on the number of consumers, i.e. population. Everyday consumption depends on consumers’ available money for consumption – more money available to spend, more waste is generated from consumption. Consumers’ ability to produce their own food, to feed domestic animals with food residue, and to destroy waste or compost it with no especial e orts or costs (in rural and suburban households), contributes to a weaker correlation of the rural population with waste generated. The urban population, characterized by a higher income and employment rate is correlated strongly with waste generated. Non-residents and visitors such as tourists also contribute to the generation of waste. All these elements of waste generation can be shown with corresponding parameters. In the testing of the waste generation hypothesis, the parameters are tested for correlations with the generated quantity of waste, promoting the parameters into potential variables for the waste model. The second step in waste modelling is to inspect how the proposed model variables correlate among them and to select the most appropriate candidates for the model. That step is performed in research described in this article. A total of 16 variables were grouped into  ve groups: county descriptive variables, total population variables, rural/urban population related, additional population and economy related variables. These groups are found to be correlated among each other. From each group, the appropriate representatives are proposed: length of roads, population or households, households with and without land, tourist stays at tourist accommodation, and annual income of the county. It was concluded that the latter should be modelled to represent the real income structure of the population. The sampling unit of the data for this research was the administrative unit county. It was concluded that the special administrative unit County of the City of Zagreb should, for modelling purposes, be considered as part of the County of Zagreb.