WastePlan

Prepared by:

Tellus Institute

Prepared for:

US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment

Application:

Financial analysis:
Environmental impact analysis:	---
Waste management/P2:
Environmental cost listing/database:	---
Cost estimation:
Alternative product/process comparison:	---

Solid waste planning and management. Applications include policy and aberration analysis.

Development/publication date and updates:

1988. Updates were released in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

Public availability:

Available

Purpose and current use:

The system has been developed as a policy analysis tool. Tellus currently has 36 clients using the system. The software has been used in municipal, state, federal, and international agencies. State waste management agencies have used it for planning and training programs in various states including New York, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois and Minnesota. It has also been applied abroad in countries including China, Mexico, New Zealand, and Canada. There are no users in industry.

Cost information:

The cost of the system is $2000 for private sector users, or $1500 for government, non-profit, and academic users.

Contents and system requirements:

Software, user-guide. IBM compatible PCs.

Summary of methodology

WastePlan allows users to build integrated solid waste plans. Any number of distinct sectors and waste types can be defined. The generated wastes are sent through user-defined sequences of source reduction, composting, recycling, and garbage collection. Finally, the wastes are routed to various facilities such as transfer stations, incinerators, landfills, recycling, or composting facilities. The results of this simulation describe waste flows, diversion rates, equipment and labor requirements, processing and disposal capacity needs, total costs, and costs per ton. Assumptions regarding technologies, efficiency, etc., can be altered. WastePlan has generally been applied for the following types of analyses.

• solid waste management planning: integrates various aspects of solid waste generation, management, and disposal.
  
• data organization and management: standard formats for input and output
  
• capital and operating cost analysis: least cost system planning for different combinations of options.
  
• user-fee analysis: modeling option for user-fees including weight and volume-based fees and subscription-based programs
  
• sensitivity analysis: analysis of alternative scenarios through changes in assumptions
  

Life-cycle stages covered

Raw material acquisition	---
Manufacturing stage
Use/reuse/maintenance	---
Recycle/waste management

The manufacturing stage is covered to the extent that source reduction is included in the analysis.

Type of costs considered

Conventional
Potentially hidden	---
Contingent	---
External	---

Typical costs included are labor, administrative and operating costs. Some other costs such as long-term care costs for landfills can also be included.

Method of cost estimation

Cost information is estimated and entered into the system by users.

Generation of financial indicators

Net present value (NPV)
Payback period	---
Internal rate of return (IRR)	---
Benefits cost ratio	---
Other	---

The system calculates the NPV of the solid waste plan.

Attributes

WastePlan features context-sensitive help screens, choice of mouse or keyboard input, and an on-screen display of the entire data structure. Various report and graph options are also available. The system is designed as a very flexible, generic system. WastePlan has an interactive database that takes changes in waste-flow into account. For example, if the generation rate changes, the diversion rates will automatically change.

Limitations

WastePlan does not include contingent, hidden, and external costs in the analysis. It is not designed for life-cycle cost analysis. It focuses on the waste management portion of the life-cycle, and thus does not include other costs and environmental impacts of products, processes, and raw materials that are responsible for generating the waste. The downside of the system flexibility is that there is very little default information in the system, and users have to source and develop a lot of information on their own (or with technical support from Tellus).

Basis for evaluation:

The profile presented here is based on information provided by the Tellus Inst. in May, 1995.

Contact information:

Multiple and single site licenses are available

Tellus Institute

11 Arlington Street

Boston, MA 02116

Paul J. Ligon

Email: PLIGON@TELLUS.COM

(Tellus Solid Waste Group)

617-266-5400

617-266-8303 (FAX)

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