Question

A community has decided to provide mandatory trash collection service to its residents. It will require 3 collection vehicles with capacity of 15 m3 to collect the solid waste from the community. It costs $350,000 to purchase each collection vehicle, and the local bank offers a loan of 3% per year. Each vehicle needs 1 driver to operate. The driver is paid $25/hour. The amortization rate for these vehicles is 6 years. The annual operation and maintenance costs for each these vehicles is $42,000. During a six-day workweek, each day a single vehicle collects solid waste from 130 residences on a single route. It takes 6 hours to complete a day’s route and 2 hours for the driver to transport and unload the solid waste at the regional landfill and return to the service center. Considering that the new solid waste service provides 100 gallon on-site storage containers (assume they are all completely filled) and that the density of this un-compacted waste is 140 kg/m3, how much will it cost to collect and dispose of this waste per ton if the landfill charges a tipping fee of $27/ton?

Answer 1