Municipal Solid Waste Characterization and Forecast in Michigan

This study characterizes Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation and its physical components and trends in the state of Michigan, in the United States. It also attempts to forecast the in-state generated MSW flow into landfills as a function of some socioeconomic factors. Large population along with high level of industrialization and other environmental concerns make MSW management a critical task in this state. A statistical analysis is performed on collected data in the presence of short data to forecast the landfilled MSW. The proposed multiple linear regression model with three significant factors of population, median household income and employment explains R2=86.03% of variability in the landfilled amount of MSW.