Analysis of waste reduction data for United States Air Force bases

Waste reduction; a process that reduces the production rate of waste that must be disposed of by a combination of source reduction, recycling, improved management, and treatment; is an effective way for hazardous waste generators to reduce both the amount of waste that they must dispose of and the amount of money that they spend on hazardous waste disposal. Therefore, since the United States armed forces are major generators of hazardous waste, it is very important that they practice waste reduction. But, since the performance of waste reduction studies at some of the relatively small Air Force bases cost from $65,000 to $112,000 per study, data on past waste reduction activities must be developed into a form that shows waste generators that the return resulting from a waste reduction program is well worth the cost of setting it up. This paper describes the collection of data from completed waste reduction studies at 12 United States Air Force Bases, the trends found from analysis of these data, and the development of a mathematical model that can be used to predict the results (potential annual waste reduction, potential annual cost savings, required capital investment, and potential payback period) of performing a waste reduction study at an Air Force base at which no full scale waste reduction program has previously been implemented. The paper also includes a test case example to validate the mathematical model and an example which estimates the amount of potential annual waste reduction and cost savings that the United States could realize by performing waste reduction studies at all United States Air Force bases.