An investigation on the operational resilience of the Canadian electronic product stewardship program and the recycling business characteristics.

Electronic waste recycling companies have proliferated in many countries due to valuable materials present in end-of-life electronic and electrical equipment. This article examined the business characteristics and management performance of Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA), a Canadian nationwide electronic product stewardship organization. The organization's annual performance reports, from 2012 to 2020, for nine Canadian provinces in which it currently operates were aggregated and analyzed. Temporal analysis using regression and Mann-Kendall tests were employed, and five characteristics of EPRA's business were analyzed, including e-waste products collected, number of drop-off locations, efforts to build public awareness, operating expenses, and growth of e-waste stewardship. Results show a decline in the amount of e-waste collected across the provinces, except in New Brunswick, which started its program in 2017. The Mann-Kendall test revealed declining temporal trends in most provinces. Although the collection/drop off sites and stewardship organizations increased astronomically over the study period in Canada, the amounts of e-waste collected decreased. We found that public awareness generally did not increase the amount of e-waste collected, and these campaigns only appeared to be effective in jurisdictions with good accessibility of e-waste recycling. Processing cost accounted for the majority of the e-waste management budget in Canada, and different factors affected the financial success of the stewards differently.

Prophet time series modeling of waste disposal rates in four North American cities.

In this study, three different univariate municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal rate forecast models (SARIMA, Holt-Winters, Prophet) were examined using different testing periods in four North American cities with different socioeconomic conditions. A review of the literature suggests that the selected models are able to handle seasonality in a time series; however, their ability to handle outliers is not well understood. The Prophet model generally outperformed the Holt-Winters model and the SARIMA model. The MAPE and R2 of the Prophet model during pre-COVID-19 were 4.3-22.2% and 0.71-0.93, respectively. All three models showed satisfactory predictive results, especially during the pre-COVID-19 testing period. COVID-19 lockdowns and the associated regulatory measures appear to have affected MSW disposal behaviors, and all the univariate models failed to fully capture the abrupt changes in waste disposal behaviors. Modeling errors were largely attributed to data noise in seasonality and the unprecedented event of COVID-19 lockdowns. Overall, the modeling errors of the Prophet model were evenly distributed, with minimum modeling biases. The Prophet model also appeared to be versatile and successfully captured MSW disposal rates from 3000 to 39,000 tons/month. The study highlights the potential benefits of the use of univariate models in waste forecast.

Solid waste management in western Canadian First Nations.

This research examined solid waste management on First Nations communities in western Canada to provide information and insight into programs, practices, policies, and activities, as well as to help bridge an identified gap related to these in the literature. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, we examined twelve First Nations communities in Canada's western provinces, which relative to other communities, had 'advanced' solid waste management systems in place. Interviews conducted in each of the communities yielded information on six themes grounded in the data, including solid waste facilities and infrastructure, solid waste programs, local capacity, provincial stewardship programs, regulation and enforcement, and funding/finance. Our analysis show that majority of the communities examined are advancing their waste management systems and now have infrastructure/facilities, such as transfer stations and recycling depots, and have implemented recycling programs, which they previously did not have. As well, we learned that implementing such programs has reduced practices, such as open dumping, which the literature highlights as a common way of managing waste in First Nations communities. Most of the communities attributed the success of their programs to regular residential curbside pickups, ability to transport waste out of the community, and community involvement and interest in programs. Despite these improvements, inadequate funding hampers the efforts of communities to sustain and/or expand their programs and maintain facilities. Additionally, most communities face challenges partnering with provincial stewardship programs, and some communities are not clear whether they even qualify to participate in these programs.