Modelling Waste Management and Re-Utilization in Accommodation Sector: The Case of North Cyprus

Tourism has been acknowledged as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, recently tourism activities have been noted as a double-edged sword, in that it not only creates positive impacts but also causes negative impacts on the physical environment (i.e., land pollution, ecosystem degradation, air and water pollution) if not well managed. Increasing concerns about the negative impacts of tourism have led various researchers to estimate and model the role of the different tourism sectors that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and various aspects of climate change. Northern Cyprus is a popular tourist destination in the Mediterranean region, boast of increasing number of tourists annually. Besides the massive economic benefits of the tourism industry of Northern Cyprus, there are serious environmental concerns on the basis of improper waste management. Hence, the present research focused on the statistical modelling of the waste generation rate of accommodation sectors of Northern Cyprus, management approach and the re-utilization of the generated wastes. The research herein adopted a quantitative method and the data were collected through the questionnaire. Various accommodation types based on size were sampled in Famagusta, Girne and Nicosia districts of Northern Cyprus. Specifically, the thesis examines the type of wastes generated, the quantity of wastes generated considering the nationality of the tourists, waste management practices employed by each sampled accommodation and established the relationship between these independent variables and the waste generation rate. The quantifiable wastes generated per tourism seasons were modelled by three statistical models; central composite design, artificial neural network and multiple linear regressions. The results showed that 4159.9 kg and 2063.4 kg of waste were generated during the peak and lean season from the sampled hospitality facilities, respectively. In the sampled accommodation, 36% of the waste generated originated from the kitchen waste and about one-fourth (27.3%) of the total waste is non-wet waste which consists 7% of glass, 8% of nylon, 5% of wood, 4.2% disposable plastics and 2.8% of PET bottles. 35% of the sampled accommodation sector practices landfill waste disposal, while only 14% recycled the wastes generated in their facilities. Considering the results, this thesis implied that the type of accommodation sector, the waste management practices adopted by the accommodation sector, nationality and the tourism season significantly influenced the waste generation rates. These findings are important for policymakers, environmentalist and development of sustainable green hotels. Recommendations concerning separation and re-utilization of generated wastes are suggested and future research directions are outlined. This study proposes the integration of the cost-benefit system into the waste management program of each accommodation sector to encourage hotels to manage their waste effectively. Also, the conversion of waste cooking oil into green energy (biofuel) is demonstrated and encouraged to incentivise better waste management. Keywords: tourism, environmental pollution, waste generation, reutilization, forecasting