Analysis of Trash Collection Practices - Assignment Example

The graph may not indicate a relationship for prediction but descriptive statistics for the six months can help.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics for the quantity of refuse for the first six months

Statistic

value

Mean

8.598464

Standard Deviation

3.662308

Count

18973

 Predicted tons of waste from September to February

The City is likely to collect 163138.7 tons of solid waste in the next six months. The mean, 8.6, means that every trip carries about 8.6 tons of solid waste and that a total of 163,138.7 tons of solid waste was disposed of in the six months. The value can then be used as an estimate for the next six months’ quantity of disposed waste.

 The predicted cost of waste disposal from March to February  

The cost of waste disposal can be derived from the quantity of waste disposed of and the unit cost of disposal. Based on the number of tons for each truck and landfill used for the six months, the City spent $3,895,594 in the first six months and this value is predicted for the next six months. The City will therefore spend a total of $7,791,188 on solid waste disposal.

 Analysis of WMI proposal  

Analysis of the total cost of waste disposal suggests that the City spends about $ 205.323 per day, $ 3,895,594 in six months, and $ 649,265.7 per month on solid waste disposal. The City however disposes about 27,189.8 tons per month and this can be used to compute possible costs under WMI’s proposal.

The following table shows the derived monthly cost for the proposal.

Monthly Tonnage

Cost Per Ton

Number of tons

Total cost

0-25,000 tons

$17.50

25,000

$437,500

25,000 tons - 30,000 tons

$25.00

2,189.78

$54,744.5

Total

27,189.78

$492,244.5

The proposal will therefore lead to a monthly expense of about $492,244.5, which is lower than the current monthly expenditure of $649,265.7. Based on the data, WMI’s proposal is recommended. Before making a decision, however, factors such as reliability and quality of service that WMI delivers should be considered. The City should ensure that WMI can match the quality of the other service providers. The City should verify the ability of WMI to collect waste at the expected times and whether the service provider has the required resources and potentials to offer the service. Terms of the company’s service delivery, its future stability, and its adherence to environmental regulations are other factors that the City should consider before deciding to work with WMI (Johansson, Lunberg, and Ryberk, 2012). This is because the factors are important to utility among involved stakeholders such as residents of the City.

 Significance of drivers’ concern and proposed solution    

Drivers from South East are complaining of being overworked. Their concern is significant, based on the following hypothesis testing results, and adding more trucks and drives would resolve the concern. The following hypothesis is tested in order to verify the drivers’ claim on the mean ton that drivers transport per trip across the centers.

H0: µNE= µNW= µSC= µ­­SW; there is no significant difference in average ton carriage per trip across the groups   

H1: Any of the means is different; there is a significant difference in average ton carriage per trip across the groups

Test of hypothesis results shows that a significant difference exists in the average ton carriage by the groups (p-value< 0.000, F= 78.04). Mean carriage for South Central is also the highest and this means that for every trip, drivers of the South Central group are forced to carry more waste than drivers in other regions. The following graph shows the mean

The data analysis results suggest that the city is likely to collect 163,138.7 tons of solid waste between September and February and spend about $7,791,188 from March to February. The proposal by WMI is cost-effective, compared to the current waste disposal approach, because if implemented, the City will spend $492,244.5 instead of the current $649,265.7 per month. The City should however consider the quality of WMI’s services before deciding to use them. In addition, drivers of South Central trucks are overworked and the City should allocate more trucks and drivers to the center.