Analysis of Influence Factors on Municipal Solid Waste Generation Based on the Multivariable Adjustment

With the rapid development of economy and urbanization, municipal solid waste (MSW) generation has also increased dramatically. MSW poses great threat to the ecological environment and the survival of humankind, and forms a bottleneck restricting the healthy and sustainable development of an economy. Research on the influence factors of MSW could provide useful information for formulation of pollution control policies. This article develops a multiple regression model to assess the impact of these influencing factors. We find that MSW generations are strongly and positively related to urban population, GDP, the quantity of solid waste transport vehicles, collection area of solid waste, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents. However, we find that MSW generations have strong and negative correlations with the inflation rate and the solid waste treatment rate. Finally, based on the empirical findings, we put forward policy recommendations to help government agencies to design measures that can effectively address the increasing trend of waste generation. (C) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1629-1633, 2016