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PROTOCOL - A COMPUTERIZED SOLID WASTE QUANTITY AND COMPOSITION ESTIMATION SYSTEM. Project Summary (EPA/600/S2-91/005)
Citation:
Klee*, A. J. PROTOCOL - A COMPUTERIZED SOLID WASTE QUANTITY AND COMPOSITION ESTIMATION SYSTEM. Project Summary (EPA/600/S2-91/005). EPA/600/2-91/005a (NTIS 91-201699), 1991.
Impact/Purpose:
Information.
Description:
The assumptions of traditional sampling theory often do not fit the circumstances when estimating the quantity and composition of solid waste arriving at a given location, such as a landfill site, or at a specific point in an industrial or commercial process. The investigator often has little leeway in the sampling observation process. Traditional unbiased random sampling will produce some intervals of little or no activity and others of frenzied activity, clearly an inefficient and error prone procedure. In addition, there are no discrete entities of solid waste composition, such as a basic unit of paper or of textiles, comprising the population about which inferences are to be drawn. Finally, with respect to solid waste composition, the traditional assumptions of normality are not valid, thus precluding the rote application of the standard statistical formulas for the estimation of sample sizes or the construction of confidence intervals. This study describes the development of sampling protocols for estimating the quantity and composition of solid waste that deal with these problems. Since the methods developed, although not mathematically complex, are arithmetically tedious, a computer program (designed to be run on personal computers with modest capabilities) was written to carry out the calculations involved.