Scenario:
Dubai government has stated a desire to increase recycling rates, both residential and business. In 2013, municipal statistics recorded as much as 2.6 million tonnes of garbage being sent to the landfill, 900,000 tonnes less than the 3.5 million tonnes sent to landfill in Dubai in 2010. However, 35 per cent of garbage is still being buried in landfills today in Dubai.
The Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy for 2030 aims to reduce energy demand by 30 per cent, as well as zero waste by 2030. Per capita, it’s estimated that Dubai residents each contribute roughly 2.7 kilos to the emirate’s waste stream every day. The “cognitive gap” between the act of recycling and understanding why we are doing it must be closed, and is the aim of the new campaign. make a recommendation for what actions the Dubai government could take to increase household recycling. In addition, you have been asked to evaluate the statistical relationship between the monthly household income and the frequency of recycling for a household.
Be able to produce information in appropriate formats for decision making in an organizational context
Prepare a business presentation using suitable software and techniques to disseminate information effectively
3.4, Produce a formal business report
L04 – Be able to use software-generated information to make decisions in an organisation
4.1, Use appropriate information processing tools
Prepare a project plan for an activity and determine the critical path
Use financial tools for decision making.
For the given scenario, prepare a presentation that addresses the following.
- Make a recommendation on actions Dubai government could take to increase household recycling rates, clearly explaining how the recommendations were derived from the data analysis
- Prepare a project plan for Dubai government actions outlined above with timelines, start / end dates, deliverables, milestones, effort and resource requirements
- Highlight the critical path on the project plan
- Estimate the financial benefits associated with the proposed recommendation
Recommendations
To increase household recycling rates, the Dubai government is recommended to undertake the following actions:
- Engage all waste collection actors in household waste collection activities. It should communicate with both commercial companies producing household wastes and householders using the media. The household recycling action plan should be developed by the Dubai industry after seeking input from waste treatment operators, local authorities, disparate industry bodies as well as waste collectors from the private sector.
- The plan, ones implemented, can increase household waste collected e.g. food and promote improved collaboration across the supply chain dealing with household recycling activities. Communication can be done using different forms as suggested in data collection, including magazines, newspapers and social network sites.
- A coordinated industry led method can help operators dealing with household wastes to secure the feedstock’s future. Moreover, household waste collectors can make the best use of the household waste collected to ensure cost effective delivery of the waste collections. The government, working alongside business organizations, can develop voluntary responsibility deals such that the business organizations play a role in making sure they produce goods who portion can be recycled.
- To optimize household waste collection, the Dubai government must make sure it provides sufficient funding to the local government to roll out household waste collection facilities for householders to participate in increasing the collection of household waste. Dubai government can also share both costs as well as benefits due to collection and recycling of household waste.
- The government should increase the quality and frequency of waste collection. The local government can increase the quality and frequency with which waste collectors collect the household waste. Instead of collecting the waste on monthly basis, the government can introduce weekly waste collection program to ensure that more waste is collected from households.
- The government should implement measures to prevent food wastages. Prevention of food wastage is useful in saving money for households and businesses. The government, in collaboration the waste management business and organizations, can reduce packaging waste for food. The government can find innovative ways to encourage the grocery retail sector to reduce household wastes from the groceries. Reducing food wastage as well as food packaging waste, and increasing the frequency of recycling food alongside package waste can help reduce household waste.
- The local government can roll out business waste as well as recycling service commitments to provide explicit information on garbage collection in households and work with home owners toward reducing household waste (Loukil & Rouached , 2012).
- The government should seek for alternatives to waste recycling, including composting methods. Composting involves putting wastes into designated areas for degradation. the products can be used a manure to grow gardens. Composting is a significant method useful for recycling kitchen waste and recycle garden waste e.g. leftover food and plant trimmings.
- The government can increase waste collection by addressing waste crime. Common waste crimes include illegally exporting the waste material, dumping in prohibited sites and carrying out illegal operations in waste management sites e.g. landfills. Such practices damage the environment, cause health problems to humans, harm the local neighbourhoods and cause pollution. The government needs to undertake several measures aimed at dealing with crime on household wastes. These include revoking the registration of the illegal waste carriers and introducing new and suitable sentencing guidelines for households that violate waste management policies.
- The government should increase the number of local recycling facilities. If the government provides services like household waste recycle centres, dry recycling collection, food waste collection on weekly basis and general waste collection, it can help regulate landfill waste. The waste operators can issue environmental permits that regulate landfill sites. The local government need to establish the waste acceptance criteria to help operate, monitor, design and close landfills. The government should only recommend using the existing landfills as the last option for recyclable and biodegradable waste. Regulating the amount of wastes to dump in the landfills help in reducing waste management costs. Increasing the number of recycling options in transit stops, sidewalks and parks as disposal points help reduce waste deposit. Individuals can properly dispose household wastes to recycle bins placed near landfills.
- Another helpful action is to reward individuals engaging in good household waste management practices. The Dubai government should encourage the local authorities to reward individuals involved in reducing, reusing, and recycling household wastes.
- Community education an important government initiative that can help reduce wastes. The Dubai government can educate the community about household waste management. For instance, website dashboards and social media are effective tools for promoting disparate recycling programs and increasing participation in waste management. The government can share important information with the residents about the acceptable recyclable household materials as well as offer contact information in case residents would like to enquire about household waste management practices.
Income and Recycling Frequency
Researchers suggest a positive relationship between monthly household income and the frequency of recycling for a household. Income is a considerable predictor of recycling activity. In relation to curbside recycling program, research shows that individuals who are home owners with higher incomes are mostly likely to engage in the recycling activities (Loukil & Rouached , 2012). As the household income increases, recycling becomes a more widespread activity (carried frequently) and also an easy activity.
Income is an economic variable that influence recycling rates (Abbott, Nandeibam & O’Shea, 2011). According to Abbott, Nandeibam & O’Shea (2011), residents from moderate or low income families use few recycling options while managing household wastes e.g. trash cans only while residents from high or medium income use more recycling options, including green waste and curbside garbage collection. The study confirms a positive causal relationship between household income and recycling frequency.
Individuals from upper class or middle class tend to engage in more recycling activities. Most households wait to accumulate enough waste materials before participating in recycling activities. So, the frequency with which these households engage in waste management initiatives is a function of storage cost and household size, all factors that are shaped by monthly income.
The knowledge concerning recycling is positively associated with the quantity of the household material to be recycled. Access and convenience influence the frequency of recycling for disparate households. Convenience and increased access to the recycling facilities increase the frequency of households in participating in recycling activities. High income earners have easy accessibility to the waste collection sites, meaning an increase in recycling frequency. Households that have curbside collection have been found to have improved (increased) waste recycling rates while dealing with traditional waste material.
Project Plan
Household residents require education and training on household waste management. By recycling more household waste, the number of waste materials produced in households reduces. In this project, the main goals are to eliminate waste generation in households, reuse and recycle the waste created in different households.
The main actors in this project will be government officers, local government authority representatives and the community residents. There are disparate actors involved in the project as it helps all stakeholders. The plan also helps operators in household waste management plants to play a significant role toward securing the supply of household waste in the long run. It is difficult to redistribute or totally prevent household wastes. So, the household recycling sector plays a significant role toward reducing the amount of household waste going to the landfills.
The deliverable is more household materials to be recycled. The goal of this project plan is to support the local authorities actively engaging in household recycling initiatives toward maximizing household waste collection cost effectively. The problem is that 35 per cent of garbage is still being buried in landfills today in Dubai, necessitating measures to increase residential recycling rates. Residents require training on waste management. In addition to training, the government will provide waste collection facilities e.g. recycling bins.
Reuse and recycling methods include use of recycling bins and landfills. The types of household waste materials include garbage, motor tires, electronics, kitchen waste and waste papers. These waste materials will be handled on weekly basis. Recycling bins will be provided to each household at a fee. The local government personnel with help distribute community recycling programs, encouraging recycling behavior and encourage community participation.
The government should provide local people with education on composting. An effective and simplest approach to recycling is composting. The kitchen waste and garden cuttings can go directly into indoor or outdoor composers. Composting household food scraps mean that the regular kitchen waste baskets do not smell and fill up faster. Individuals therefore, should be educated on using composite heaps for household items such as paper napkins and newspapers.
Critical Path Analysis
The tool helps in project scheduling and management (Chen & Hsueh, 2009). The critical analysis tool identifies the critical activities and total float activities, which can be delayed without lengthening the project.
The tool contains project activities, duration, dependencies and deliverables. Critical path method (CPM) lists all activities for completion in the project. A work breakdown structure can also be used to list the activities. Secondly, CPM contains the time that will be taken to complete each activity listed. Thirdly, CPM shows dependencies in the activities. The activities can either be parallel or sequential. Lastly, CPM has logical end points to indicate deliverable or milestone items.
Critical path method is used to calculate the longest path (Aliyu, 2013). CPM uses the four values indicated to calculate a critical path of the planned activities to the end such that it becomes possible to start the earliest and finish the latest activity without project delays. Some activities that can be delayed are also revealed.
The Critical Path Method will be used to manage the entire project on household recycling. CPM is useful in managing project schedules. There are five main activities in our project, which will be managed using CPM. Moreover, CPM will be used in planning and organizing resources, prioritizing main tasks, estimating and minimizing project time, supporting project cost approximations and evaluation and providing project guidance.
Financial Benefits
Through education and awareness programs, cost of waste recycling and disposal reduces. Community residents who participate in household recycling through education gain cost advantages. They recycle and manage household waste at reduced costs because of government help in paying for some recycling facilities.
Recycling generates money. Recycling on national scale positively influences the economy through employment opportunities, resource conservation and energy cost reduction. With increase in energy prices (e.g. oil), individuals become aware of recycling impacts. In particular, they can reduce plastic waste materials that originate from the beverage industry and bottled water companies. Businesses engaging in recycling generate profits from sale of the collected recycles.
Recycling initiatives and services provide some cost savings for the municipal government. This include avoided cost of waste treatment, collection and disposal of household wastes. Overall, the municipal government save on costs associated with removal of household wastes from different places including public parks and roadways. The volume of the waste collected drives recycling costs of the municipal government, translating to a relationship between waste management systems and waste collection frequency. With the high volume to weight ratio of the municipal waste management system, there is increased frequency of waste collection.
Through waste crime penalties and guidelines, the government can address garbage burning, particular within homesteads, reduce cases of illegal dumping electronics such as computers and television sets, furniture and motor tires among other household items, and encourage burring the garbage in the landfills.
References;
- Abbott, A., S. Nandeibam, and L. O’Shea (2011). Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the uk. Ecological Economics 70 (11), 2214–2223.
- Aliyu, A. (2013). Project Management using Critical Path Method (CPM): A Pragmatic Study. Global Journal Of Pure And Applied Sciences, 18(3-4). https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/gjpas.v18i3-4.11
- Chen, S. & Hsueh, Y. (2009). A simple approach to fuzzy critical path analysis in project networks. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 32(7), 1289-1297. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2007.04.009
- Koford, B. C., G. C. Blomquist, D. M. Hardesty, and K. R. Troske (2012). Estimating consumer willingness to supply and willingness to pay for curbside recycling. Land Economics 88 (4), 745 – 763
- Loukil, F. & L. Rouached (2012). Modeling packaging waste policy instruments and recycling in the MENA region. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 69, 141–152.
- Sivakumar, K. & Sugirtharan, M. (2010). Impact of family income and size on per capita solid waste generation: a case study in Manmunai north divisional secretariat division of Batticaloa. J Sci. Univ. Kelaniya 5 (1), 13-23