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

新型冠状病毒疫情对城市固体废物管理系统（MSWMS）构成挑战。为了防止其蔓延，大多数人都在家工作，这意味着他们产生的住宅垃圾比正常情况下要多。此外，由于自我克制和旅行禁令导致当地地区孤立，无法工作的工人人数越来越多，这限制了医疗、社会福利和医疗服务部门的能力。随着大流行，不同系统组件（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）必须更加适应，以最大限度地利用有限的能力，这是满足过度废物需求的关键。在这个RAPID项目中，项目团队将收集关于冠状病毒大流行对美国多个州（包括佛罗里达、纽约和加州）的MSWMS影响的短暂数据。由于冠状病毒对MSWMS的影响及其反应在各州以及从城市到农村环境中各不相同，因此这些数据可用于（i）识别和表征广泛的区域废物管理挑战，（ii）跟踪不同系统实体为充分运营城市废物服务而采取的新兴适应行为，以及（iii）指定系统要求和特征（即，系统组成、拓扑结构和控制），从而能够在大流行期间成功地适应。该项目将产生一个关于大流行影响和反应以及MSWMS中相关属性和变量的数据库，该数据库将指导研究人员，私营部门，监管机构和规划机构创建和实施针对大流行病的弹性废物管理操作。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举行虚拟会议，并审查废物管理准则，确定和绘制每个系统中的实体、业务、关系和控制措施。这一步骤将建立正常运作的基线结构，这将有助于区分实体在疫情期间的新行为。第二，在线调查将向系统实体询问其与废物有关的挑战和应对措施;调查将在六个月内每月进行一次。如果正常运营需要调整系统结构，则将进行访谈，以更深入地了解集体决策背景。第三，在本项目结束时，将组织一个由技术咨询小组参加的虚拟研讨会，审查MSWMS报告的适应措施并讨论建议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.