COST ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WASTE DISPOSAL

This paper quantifies the cost involved due to the psychological effect of waste disposal. The major costs are quantified as management and personnel costs. Management costs refer to those associated with awareness, recovery and recycling, taskforce and experimental. On the other hand, personnel costs are related to tax and health. The approach utilized is the algebraic sum of these component costs, since dimensional consistency of the formulation is observed. The results obtained indicate that the framework presented could beneficially add to the tool kit of the environmental decision makers. This would make it possible to generate scenarios that would give the decision maker adequate information before decisions are made. The implication of this research is that intuitive decision-making on cost is replaced with scientific backed up decision making. The idea proposed in this work is new since it provides a unique way of measuring cost of the effects of waste disposal on the stakeholders in the system.