Impact of Revenue Generated from Waste Management on Gross Domestic Product

A Maximization Approach using Goal Programming

Abstract

Solid waste management is highly essential on the ground that the World has moved away from the popular millennium development goals which ended in 2015 and the World is focusing on sustainable development goals which are relatively new concepts and catching the attention of World environmental agencies in their bid for the World to a better place for the humanity. Higher economic growth rates often result in increased waste generation, which can adversely impact the environment. Examining the interdependence between these two indicators is crucial for understanding their dynamics. Solid waste serves as a critical measure of a country’s environmental health, while GDP reflects its economic performance. Economic development influences waste management strategies, as a result better waste management policies can in turn generate more revenue and increases the national Gross domestic Product (GDP). The data used for this study is a secondary data collected from National Bureau of statistics. This study aimed at optimizing solid waste management contribution to the GDP using goal programming to maximizing waste management revenue as it impact. By leveraging on the impact of integrated solid waste such as recycling, compost, incineration, waste to energy etc as pathways to innovative transformations in the country and using a multi objective goal programming approach, the result shows that after solving the optimization model which resulted in a total National Gross Domestic Product (NGDP) contribution of 1.4% indicates that the solid waste management sector can significantly contribute to the NGDP by effectively allocating resources to both waste collection and recycling within the specified constraints. Increasing the type and treatment of waste leads to an increased net profit, therefore incorporating sorting, recycling, compost, refuse derived fuel (RDF) production leads to more profit, job creation, high reduction of waste to the landfill, reducing health hazards and increasing revenue generated from the sales of different recycled product, compost and incineration.