US Local Government Service

Introduction
The City of Myrtle Beach is both a residential and vacation community in South Carolina. The city has over 30,000 permanent residents and millions of visitors attracted by the warm weather, the wide beaches, and entertainment services available in the city. The city is under a local government with over 900 staff members who work to deliver the various services under the jurisdiction of the local government. Among these services is solid waste management and recycling (City Of Myrtle Beach, n.d). This service is under the solid waste division which falls under the public works department of the local government of Myrtle Beach. This paper seeks to present a family of indicators that could be used to determine its success.
Overview of the system
All form of household waste, yard waste, and bulky junk are collected by the Solid waste division staff on a weekly basis, on a services day for the specific zones – there are four zones, which all lie within the city limits. With a fee of $2 per month, residential customers are able to choose between two sizes of recycling roll-out carts and two sizes of solid waste roll-out carts. On the services day, customers are required to place the carts at the curbside by 6:00 am and the replacement removed by the curbside by 11:00 pm on the same day. The objectives of the Myrtle Beach waste management system is disposal and recycling.

The general waste management system in
City of
Myrtle Beach

Recycle
Local Government waste Management
Residential households waste


Waste collection in pelican roll-out carts

Sorting
Electronic waste

Disposal
Private waste management companies



Industrial waste

Specialized disposal

Success indicators
Waste management indicators are used to measure “performance” or/and “track progress” of the predetermined waste management goals. The specific indicators used vary with the overall waste management objective. Waste management objective can be focused to recycling as is the case in Japan, focused to waste reduction as in Taiwan, or focused to waste to energy recovery as the case in Singapore (Visvanathan, 2012). In Myrtle Beach, waste management adopts a disposal and recycling approach. In this case, indicators, which are usually quantifiable variable, would be used for the measurement of progress achieving waste disposal and recycling.
i. Total amount of per capita waste generation (ton or kg per person/day/day)
ii. Recycling rate (in percentage)
Total amount of per capita waste generation
The amount of waste generated varies with affluence thus; the various between counties or even regions can be significant. According to the World Bank, the United States of America municipal solid waste generates about 4.48 pounds of solid water per person per day. About 60 percent of this waste is recyclable. About 30 percent of the waste collected in the City of Myrtle Beach is directed to landfills.
This indicator is useful in determining the effectiveness of waste collection. Total amount of per capita waste generation is proportional to the economic status of the region thus; it indicates the effectiveness of waste production if the standard amount is being realized. In addition, this indicator sets the ground for waste management operations.
Recycling rate
One of the goals of waste management in the City of Myrtle Beach is recycling. Of the collected waste, 60% is recyclable; however, only 30 percent of the recyclable waste is actually recycled. This means that only about 20% of all the solid waste generated in the City of Myrtle Beach is recycled, which would be considered to be way below the target.
As the world, in general, has gravitated towards green consciousness, recycling is a major part of waste disposal systems (Lindblom, 1959). Recycling diverts waste from landfills or incineration which both contributes to greenhouse emissions. This indicator is an important measure for waste management in cities adopting green strategies for waste management.


References
City Of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, (N.D.). Solid Waste Division. Retrieved from http://www.cityofmyrtlebeach.com/departments/solid_waste_management/index.php on 11 October 2018
Lindblom, C.E. (1959). “The science of “muddling” through,” Public Administration Review, 19(2): 79-88.
Visvanathan, C. (2012). “Waste Management Indicators-Priority and Challenges” Asia Resource Circulation Policy Research Workshop 12-14 December 2012 Bangkok. Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.