Estimating solid waste generation by hospitality industry during major festivals: A quantification model based on multiple regression

Abstract

Major-religious festivals hosted in the city of Kerbala, Iraq, annually generate large quantities of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) which negatively impacts the environment and human health when poorly managed. The hospitality sector, specifically hotels, is one of the major sources of MSW generated during these festivals. Because it is essential to establish a proper waste management system for such festivals, accurate information regarding MSW generation is required. This study therefore investigated the rate of production of MSW from hotels in Kerbala during major festivals. A field questionnaire survey was conducted with 150 hotels during the Arba'een festival, one of the largest festivals in the world, attended by about 18 million participants, to identify how much MSW is produced and what features of hotels impact on this. Hotel managers responded to questions regarding features of the hotel such as size (Hs), expenditure (Hex), area (Ha) and number of staff (Hst). An on-site audit was also carried out with all participating hotels to estimate the mass of MSW generated from these hotels. The results indicate that MSW produced by hotels varies widely. In general, it was found that each hotel guest produces an estimated 0.89 kg of MSW per day. However, this figure varies according to the hotels' rating. Average rates of MSW production from one and four star hotels were 0.83 and 1.22 kg per guest per day, respectively. Statistically, it was found that the relationship between MSW production and hotel features can be modelled with an R of 0.799, where the influence of hotel feature on MSW production followed the order Hs > Hex > Hst.

Investigating municipal solid waste management system performance during the Arba’een event in the city of Kerbala, Iraq

“…During religious events, MSWM activities such as collection, transportation and treatment are delivered by three government institutions; Kerbala Municipality (KM), Kerbala Municipalities (KMs) and the Holy Shrines Authority (HSA) (Abdulredha et al 2018a). These institutions are responsible for all the MSWM across all the event areas (see Fig.…”

“…Their MSWM activities include collecting and dumping MSW into nearby landfill ( Fig. 1) with no treatment or resources recovery such as recycling and composting (Abdulredha et al 2017b(Abdulredha et al , 2018a. Accurate data about the event MSW such as generation rates and composition do not exist, leading to weak planning and service delivery (Abdulredha et al 2018a).…”

“…1) with no treatment or resources recovery such as recycling and composting (Abdulredha et al 2017b(Abdulredha et al , 2018a. Accurate data about the event MSW such as generation rates and composition do not exist, leading to weak planning and service delivery (Abdulredha et al 2018a). This situation has led to an improper MSWM infrastructure and illegal MSW dumping (Abdulredha et al 2017c).…”

“…El Hanandeh (2013) reported approximately 300 million individuals participating in worldwide religious events on an annual basis. Thus, events are responsible for generating huge quantities of municipal solid waste (MSW) and are attributed as increasing the probability of serious negative impacts on the environment (Abdulredha et al 2018a). There is a level of awareness of these issues as evidenced by El Hanandeh (2013), who proposed several alternatives to minimise the greenhouse gases emissions from municipal solid waste management (MSWM) operations during Hajj events.…”

“…However, Getz and Page (2016) reported that research has largely neglected the environmental aspects of tourism events. Research specific to environmental aspects of large events has covered a wide range of topics including waste generation (Abdulredha et al 2018a), waste recycling intention and behaviour (Alsebaei 2014), waste prevention measures (Martinho et al 2018), environmental impact (Collins and Cooper 2016), evaluating the environmental sustainability (Collins et al 2012), litter management (Cierjacks et al 2012) and carbon footprint (El Hanandeh 2013). Zeng et al (2014) investigated greenhouse gases emissions from MSW generated at the Shanghai Expo, 2010 while Rafiee et al (2018) studied the impacts of several religious and non-religious events on recycling a fraction of MSW in Tehran, Iran.…”