Development of Methodology for Estimating Each Waste Composition Generation Unit Data by Integration Between Waste Composition Data at Incineration Plants and Household Expenditure

Abstract

Waste management requires a comprehensive evaluation system for upgrading the efficiency of energy recovery/utilization and improving the recycling rate. Energy recovery and recycling rates need improvements to understand the actual status of waste emissions for each composition. However, few studies have focused on the geographical aspects of waste composition and generation. Therefore, this study estimated the relationship between household expenditure and waste composition and generation using integration data via a waste transportation model. Ridge regression analysis was used to obtain the unit waste composition and generation unit per unit of household expenditure from the integrated data. Using the generated unit data, the geographic distribution of the composition and generation was estimated for each waste. According to the obtained results, total waste generation was greater in highly-populated areas. However, the amount of waste generated per person was also higher in rural areas such as Hokkaido, Ishikawa, and Yamaguchi prefectures. Overall, this study presents a methodology for estimating waste composition and generation unit data per unit of household expenditure using an easy statistical method. Multiple years can be analyzed using this model, facilitating estimation of time-series changes in unit data.