Book Description

The United States Air Force requires each installation to operate a municipal solid waste recycling program. Two inherently conflicting objectives, waste material diversion and financial result, have been established for the program. Reducing landfill disposal is the primary objective, but the incentive for profit is strong because each installation can retain profits from the program. Installations can be divided into two distinct areas, commercial and residential, based on the waste stream composition and funding. Structuring of the recycling program is often done in an ad-hoc manner. A decision support model was developed to evaluate four methods for each area. The model combines available Air Force data and information from research literature to determine the results of sixteen strategy combinations. The important variables affecting the results are determined through sensitivity analysis. The results are used to establish an efficient frontier of preferred strategies. The frontier illustrates the trade-offs of each strategy. The frontier can be also be used to inform decision makers prior to final strategy selection and determine preference values which would favor a given strategy. The value free analysis provides an objective foundation for presentation to a decision maker with unknown or changing preference values. The model provides valuable insight into the performance of recycling strategies as part of an overall waste management plan.