An Analysis of Household Solid Waste in Kuwait: Magnitude, Type, and Forecasting Models

Academia and responsible government authorities have joined hands in a multi-dimensional research project to determine and analyze urban solid waste management in Kuwait in a cost-effective manner. In this study, a random sample of 2,000 households were interviewed, and the 11 private-sector companies responsible for the collection, transport, and disposal of household solid waste were coordinated, along with the Kuwait Municipality's Department of Environmental Affairs, to facilitate, expedite, and promote accomplishment of research tasks. More than 200 randomly selected solid waste trucks were subjected to a detailed manual waste classification procedure. Measurements of the actual quantity (by type) of daily solid waste from the truck monitoring survey were used to assess households' reported response accuracy. A number of statistical techniques were employed to examine trends and develop relationships between households' socioeconomic traits and solid waste generation. These included descriptive and distributional statistics, correlation, cross-classification, the chi-square test, and variance component analysis.