Analysis of the Per Capita Generation of Municipal Solid Waste by Socioeconomic Strata in Veracruz, Mexico, Using a Statistical Experimental Design

The management of municipal solid waste （MSW） is currently one of the major environmental concerns in Mexico. Therefore, municipalities must develop local programs for prevention and integrated management of MSW based on the data of MSW generation; however, these are scarce and diffuse. It is known that the MSW generation is affected by many factors, including life level. Given the importance of having reliable data, the objective of this study was to determine the per capita MSW generation of a small urban locality in the state of Veracruz and test whether there were significant statistic differences of per capita M SW generation among the life levels. The households were randomly sampled according to the Mexican standard of reference and were classified as popular, middle and residential. The per capita MSW generation determined was 0.355 kg·inhab^-1.day^-1. This value was lower than the value estimated by the national reference, suggesting that it might be overestimated and consequently lead to errors in estimating installations costs for the MSW treatment. The result of the experimental design revealed that there were significant statistic differences in the per capita MSW generation among the three socioeconomic strata. This study will allow the municipality to establish better strategies within the municipal program and differential rate for the provision of public clean service and it also provides a solid basis for future research under similar conditions.