Benefit Cost Analysis
A benefit cost analysis was performed to compare the current landfill operations to the proposed operations with the implementation of the RDC. This comparison takes into consideration the operational gains and losses throughout a ten year time period for both of the alternatives. A discussion of each analyzed operations will be discussed below.
Existing Operations
The landfill currently dedicates 40% of operational time maintaining the working face of the landfill. It is necessary to maintain a safe environment for the residential customers present within the landfill. In order to create this safe environment, residential waste is buried several times throughout each working day. This constant effort of CLL consumes an excess amount of fuel, oil, time etc. which as a result, creates excess costs.
Recycling is another item which generates additional costs. CLL is required to recycle at least 60 tons each day. Any shortcoming of this goal is fined $32.25 per ton. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Report of 2011, a total of 54% of collected MSW is recyclable items. Therefore, if short of required recycling goal, the MSW is sent to a material recovery facility (MRF) in order to attempt retrieval of recyclable items.
Proposed Operations
There will be many benefits with the implementation of the RDC. By keeping the residential customers away from the hazards of the working face of the landfill, the amount of time dedicated to maintaining a safe environment will be reduced from 40% to an estimated 10%. Residential waste will not necessitate constant burial.
An RDC creates a safe environment in which there are several locations for residents to separate their waste. The residents will no longer have to make several stops to dispose of their waste. It is estimated that the amount of recyclables buried alongside the MSW can be reduced by 10% for CLL. This can significantly save money spent using the MRF.
Results
The total net present value of the current operations comes to a loss of $5,803,603 at the end of a 10 year time period. This includes the prices of commodities (fuel, oil, vehicle parts etc.), labor costs, recycling short fall etc. An inflation rate of 2.4% was used in this analysis.
The total net present value of the proposed operations with an RDC comes to a loss of $185,525. This number is dependent on the amount of increased recycling compared to the existing operations.
The benefit for each alternative was weighed against the cost giving a ratio that can easily show the feasibility factors. The benefit cost ratio for the existing operation comes to 0.43 whereas the benefit cost ratio for the proposed operations is 1.43. This shows that the proposed RDC is much more beneficial to CLL than what is currently in operation. While the implementation of the RDC will continue to create loss for the landfill, it is less of a cost than leaving everything as is.