Investigating the Nova Scotia Waste Management Model: Business and Financial Aspects

Abstract

Canadians disposed 965 kg of solid waste per capita (kg/cap) in 2010, while in Nova Scotia, a Canadian province, the average disposal was only 390 kg/cap. Using aggregate data from national surveys, the first part of this study used regression analysis to analyze disposal and diversion trends, and their relationships with expenditure, GDP, business size, and diversion rates in Nova Scotia, Québec, Ontario, and nationally. Waste diversion increased by 35% in Nova Scotia, compared to a 1.5% increase nationally over the study period (1996-2010). In Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Canada there were somewhat strong relationships between GDP and residential diversion (0.5 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.8); however, Nova Scotia had a strong and positive relationship (R2 = 0.886, p = 0.0016) between nonresidential diversion and GDP. An analysis of capital and operating expenditure found that, using a simple linear model, Nova Scotia would only have to spend $455/tonne of waste managed to achieve a diversion rate of 60%, while Ontario would have to spend $2,200/tonne of waste managed to achieve the same result. Nova Scotia has more waste management businesses per capita, and the average number of employees increased more than in other provinces, implying that diversion requires more employees than disposal, a finding consistent with the literature. In the second part of this study, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine diversion trends with respect to percentage of expenditure on various parameters related to the management of solid waste in Canada. Budget allocation varies significantly in Nova Scotia, with only 33% of the budget being spent on Collection and Transportation, compared to the national average expenditure of 46%. In Nova Scotia, tipping fees were strongly positively related (m = 2.044, p = 0.001) to diversion rate. Interestingly, tipping fees were found to be related to diversion rates in Nova Scotia and Canada, but not in Ontario or Québec. A lagged relationship between increases in budget allocation for operation of organics processing facilities and diversion rates was found in Québec, with a lag period of about 6 years. When considering Nova Scotia’s regional curbside collection diversion rates and operations costs for disposal, recycling, organics processing, and transfer facilities, only garbage and recycling operations costs were found to be related to diversion rates. It appears that regions with only transfer facilities have poor diversion rates compared to regions with landfill disposal facilities.