RAPID: The Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems

冠状病毒大流行对城市固体废物管理系统(MSWMS)提出了挑战。为了防止它的传播，大多数人都在家里工作，这意味着他们产生了比平时更多的生活垃圾。此外，由于自我隔离和旅行禁令导致当地地区与世隔绝，无法联系到的工人数量不断增加，限制了MSWMS的能力。随着流行病的蔓延，不同系统组成部分(即废物收集公司、废物转运站、地方政府机构、材料回收设施和垃圾填埋场)的功能和相互作用必须变得更加适应，以最大限度地提高有限的能力，这是满足过度废物需求的关键。在这个快速项目中，项目团队将收集冠状病毒大流行对美国多个州(包括佛罗里达州、纽约州和加利福尼亚州)MSWMS的影响的短暂数据。由于冠状病毒对MSWMS的影响及其应对措施在各州以及从城市到农村的环境中各不相同，这些数据可用于(I)确定和描述广泛的区域废物管理挑战，(Ii)跟踪不同系统实体为充分运行城市废物服务而采取的新的适应行为，以及(Iii)指定使大流行期间能够成功适应的系统要求和特征(即，系统组成、拓扑和控制)。该项目将在MSWMS中建立一个大流行影响和应对以及相关属性和变量的数据库，以指导研究人员、私营部门、监管机构和规划机构为大流行创建和实施有弹性的废物管理行动。项目的主要任务有三个方面。首先，该小组将通过与废物管理公司和固体废物管理当局的虚拟会议以及审查废物管理准则，确定并绘制每个系统中的实体、业务、关系和控制。这一步骤将为正常运作建立一个基线结构，这将有助于区分大流行期间实体的新行为。第二，一项在线调查将询问各系统实体与废物有关的挑战和对策；调查将在六个月内每月进行一次。如果正常运作需要适应系统结构，将举行访谈，以更深入地了解集体决策的背景。第三，在该项目结束时，将组织一个带有技术咨询小组的虚拟研讨会，以审查MSWMS报告的适应性措施并讨论建议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The coronavirus pandemic is challenging municipal solid waste management systems (MSWMSs). In an effort to prevent its spread, most people are working from home, which means that they are generating a larger amount of residential waste than normal. Further, the capacity of MSWMSs is being constrained by the increasing number of unavailable workers due to self-quarantining and the isolation of local areas as a result of travel bans. With a pandemic, the function and interplay of different system components (i.e., waste collection companies, waste transfer stations, local government agencies, material recovery facilities, and landfills) must become more adaptive to maximize the limited capacity, which is key to accommodating excessive waste demand. In this RAPID project, the project team will collect ephemeral data on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on MSWMSs in multiple U.S. states including Florida, New York, and California. Since the impact of the coronavirus on MSWMSs and their responses vary across states and from urban to rural setting, these data can be used to (i) identify and characterize a broad range of regional waste management challenges, (ii) track the emerging adaptive behaviors different system entities take to adequately operate municipal waste services, and (iii) specify the system requirements and characteristics (i.e., system composition, topology, and control) that enable successful adaptation during a pandemic. This project will yield a database of pandemic impacts and responses and associated attributes and variables in MSWMSs that will guide researchers, private sectors, regulators, and planning agencies toward the creation and implementation of resilient waste management operations for pandemics. The primary project tasks are threefold. First, the team will identify and map entities, operations, relationships, and controls in each system through virtual meetings with waste management companies and solid waste management authorities, and review of waste management guidelines. This step will establish a baseline structure for the normal operation, which will help to distinguish entities' emerging behaviors during the pandemic. Second, an online survey will ask system entities about their waste-related challenges and responses; the survey will occur once per month over a six-month period. If normal operations require adaptation of system structure, an interview will be held to gain more insight into the collective decision-making context. Third, a virtual workshop with a technical advisory group will be organized at the end of this project to review MSWMSs' reported adaptive measures and discuss recommendations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.