GIS Research Proposal: City Recycling Programs

I.
Background: Currently landfills are being filled to capacity while at the same
time more resources are gleaned from the earth. Recycling can help divert waste
from packed landfills as well as reduce the energy and cost of extracting raw
materials from the earth.
II. Literature Review: Many cities have mandatory recycling programs and have
done their own research on recycling and have data available. Many other cities
are working to improve their own programs and are the process of research.
III. Hypotheses: GIS could be used to organize data in order to anticipate how much
recycling would be generated from certain areas, how many recycling trucks are
needed for each area, and where to locate recycling centers.
IV. Data: Data on how much recycling a household generates would be needed.
This could be extrapolated from other areas or, if the recycling program is not
new, how much recycling is generated per household would already be known.
How much recycling is generated per square mile (or any other measurement of
area) would also be needed. In addition, the existing locations of recycling
centers would be needed as well as city street data. This would most likely be
available online.
V. Methods: Proportional symbol maps could be used to display data on how much
recycling is generated per square mile (or any other measurement of area) within
the city. This would show which areas could potentially need more recycling
trucks and recycling centers. Straight line distance allocations could be used to
show which areas already are close to recycling centers and which could use
more. The distance allocation can be cost weighted based on roads as well.
VI. Anticipated Results: I expect to find that certain areas of the city that are more
populated need more recycling trucks and centers than others that are less
populated. I also expect to find that some areas are very remote and far away
from recycling centers when compared to most other areas.
VII. Policy Applications: The research results could be used to improve current
recycling programs or help to form new ones.
VIII. Budget: Hardware would be expected to cost around $3,000 and software could
cost up to $1,000. If all of the data was provided, about 20 hours would be
needed to analyze the data. If labor cost $25, and only one person was used
labor would cost about $500, though additional hours could be needed to
assemble the data. This would come to about $4,500 total.