March 8-12

WM2020 Conference, Phoenix, WM Symposia Inc., www.wmsym.org

March 10-11

C&D World (co-located with ConExpo-Con/Agg 2020), Las Vegas, CDRA, cdrecycling.org

March 11-13

Sustainability in Packaging US 2020, Chicago, Smithers Pira, www.sustainpackus.com

March 11-13

Plastics Recycling 2020, Nashville, Tennessee, Resource Recycling Inc., www.plasticsrecycling.com

March 15-18

33rd Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, Miramar Beach, Florida, Southern Waste Information eXchange Inc., www.southeastrecycling.com

March 22-25

35th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management (SWTM), Annapolis, Maryland, The Journal of SWTM, http://solid-waste.org/2020-agenda/

March 23-26

SWANApalooza 2020, Atlanta, SWANA, swanapalooza.org/

April 8-11

ISRI 2020 Convention and Exposition, Las Vegas, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., www.isri2020.org

April 27-30

European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, Marseille, France, ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, www.eubce.com

May 4-7

WasteExpo, New Orleans, Waste 360, www.wasteexpo.com

May 17-20

Solid Waste and Recycling Conference with Trade Show, Bolton Landing, New York, NY Federation of Solid Waste Associations, conference.nyfederation.org/

May 18-20

Re|focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit, Cincinnati, Plastics Industry Association, www.refocussummit.org

June 2-4

Harbor’s 13th Aluminum Outlook Summit, Chicago, Harbor Aluminum, harboraluminumsummit.com

July 1-2

World Biogas Summit 2020, Birmingham, England, World Biogas Association, world-biogas-summit.com

The saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” is more pertinent than ever as community composting programs gain traction across the U.S. With almost 30 percent of compostable material being sent to landfills and incinerators each year, a growing number of municipalities are recognizing composting as a common-sense solution to America’s current waste problem.

To encourage the implementation of these programs, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, Environment America Research and Policy Center, and Frontier Group released the 2019 Composting in America report.

“Ultimately, what we’re advocating for in the report is that composting programs are beneficial across the board and should be implemented in municipalities across the country,” says Abigail Bradford, policy analyst at Frontier Group and co-author of the report. “Continuing to landfill and incinerate organic material is wasting a really valuable resource that can help us tackle some of the biggest issues we’re facing, such as global warming and the loss of topsoil that we need to produce food and stop the runoff of toxic fertilizers. So, what we would like to see happen is more and more municipalities [realize] that it’s beneficial for them to implement composting programs, and to know how to do so.”

According to the report, there has been a 65 percent increase in communities offering composting programs in the last five years, yet only 326 towns out of more than 19,000 nationwide offer curbside food waste collection.

“Composting programs can work in every community—from small towns to big cities,” Bradford said in a press release announcing the report. “What communities may lack is know-how.”

Getting started

There are several avenues cities and towns can take when setting up an organics diversion program. Some municipalities adopt community-wide organic waste collection programs, similar to curbside trash and recycling services, while others encourage community composting programs, such as those found at community gardens and schools. For Alex Truelove, the zero waste director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund, the right method is wholly dependent on the community in question.

“I don’t necessarily think there is one perfect program. It [usually] makes more sense in densely populated cities to have curbside programs versus a more rural place where drop-off centers or backyard compositing programs might make more sense,” he says.

For counties like Prince William, Virginia, a desire to expand the capacity and operations of its local composting facility led to a partnership with Freestate Farms, a Manassas, Virginia-based agricultural services and production firm, in 2015. The new contract called for Freestate to construct and operate the composting facility, while also provide organics waste management services at that site and at the county’s landfill. This year, the facility is expected to be operating at double its original processing capacity, composting over 80,000 tons of organic waste annually.

On the other hand, municipalities can permit private composting companies to operate in their community independently. Private haulers and processors, such as Compost Cab in Washington, D.C., and Bootstrap Compost in Boston, charge participating residents and businesses a fee to haul away and compost their organic waste on a weekly basis. These programs tend to have lower participation and higher pick-up fees due to their inability to achieve the same cost advantages as citywide programs, but can be a good place to start, according to the report.

In rural areas where homes are more spread out, curbside collection programs are not always effective. For these communities, it is often more feasible for residents and businesses to drop off their organic waste off at designated locations, such as recycling centers, farmers markets or other centrally located facilities.

“A lot of rural communities don’t have curbside collection and residents already bring their trash to the local dump and handle recycling themselves,” says Bradford. “It’s best to mimic whatever system the city has for trash and recycling so people aren’t engaging in a separate process or going to a separate location to compost. They’re doing the same thing; they’re just separating their organics from their recycling and their trash.”

To make composting convenient, the report recommends using curbside pickup if appropriate to the community. Since curbside collection mirrors most municipalities’ trash and recycling programs, these services experience higher waste diversion rates than programs where participants have to drop off their organics at a collection facility. Some communities, such as San Francisco, encourage residents to participate in composting programs by making the bins for organic waste larger and the bins for nonorganic waste smaller.

To lay the groundwork for a successful composting infrastructure in a city, many communities start with a commercial composting requirement. By requiring large commercial producers of organic waste, such as grocery stores and hospitals, to divert their organic waste away from landfills, municipalities can help promote the development of local organic waste hauling and composting businesses. These initial facilities can then be developed and expanded to handle the waste of homes and smaller businesses.

“That first step [with commercial collection] is an easy one for municipalities because it doesn’t require resources from the town or city, it’s just up to those businesses to take care of it,” says Bradford. “Those producers are often a significant percentage of a community’s overall organic waste profile, so these requirements can be pretty impactful. And in setting up commercial programs, the businesses start to create a local composting economy because they need somewhere to bring their [organics].”

Keys to success

According to the Composting in America report, ensuring the success of a composting program comes down to four principles: affordability, education, convenience and frequency.

While composting facilities make money by selling finished compost, it is not enough to cover the costs of collection and processing. To incentivize participation in these programs, communities have instituted programs where residents are charged for waste disposal based on the amount they throw away. “In a perfect world, I think municipalities would roll out composting programs as part of a greater pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) or save money and reduce trash (SMART) system, such that compost is either free and covered by the fees charged for trash, somehow subsidized or at least made as inexpensive as trash and recycling is,” says Truelove.

In communities with a PAYT or SMART program, residents are charged a fee for each bag or can of waste they generate or billed based on the weight of their trash. According to the EPA, communities that implement these programs typically see a decrease in overall solid waste production, with a final disposal rate of 400 to 600 pounds per person per year (compared to the national average of 1,124 pounds per person).

Educating residents on the benefits of composting is also a driving force behind participation. By utilizing marketing tactics such as advertisements, public announcements and social media, communities can help promote the concept of composting while also preventing contamination. In Hennepin County, Minnesota, for example, several cities have recruited local residents and community groups to educate and promote composting. Linden Hills, the neighborhood with the highest participation rate in Minneapolis, partnered with local nonprofit Linden Hills Light and Power to appoint “block captains” that educate their neighbors about the mechanics and value of composting.

This education can create more efficient and effective composting programs, as sorting contaminants out of organic waste is resource-intensive. In communities like Boulder, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, these municipalities have begun posting instructional how-to videos on their websites to inform residents of what is and isn’t compostable. Additionally, the city of Denver recently released an online quiz that helps educate residents about source separation.

Just like there is no-one-size-fits-all organics collection system, Truelove says the effectiveness of an education campaign depends on a number of factors. However, the one constant is the need for consistent messaging.

“I think the biggest thing is just continuing to try to get the message out there about the benefits of composting and the harm we’re doing to ourselves by not composting,” says Truelove. … “It’s repetition. Keep telling the same story to find new audiences and tell it in a new and compelling way, whether that’s using different mediums, different channels or different people.”

Next steps

As more local composting programs continue to emerge, it is important to have support from federal and state governments. To help encourage the creation of community composting facilities, governments can subsidize these programs through grants, loans or by issuing repayment guarantees to local municipalities and private companies that lack the resources to fund a project on their own.

According to a report by the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, construction of a large anaerobic digestion facility that processes 50,000 tons of organic waste per year costs around $20 million to build. Following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the USDA was allotted $25 million to develop and test municipal composting programs, however, the funding will only go towards approximately 10 states and is only authorized through 2023.

To pave a path towards more universal composting adoption, Bradford says governments can be instrumental by pushing more diversion-centered regulation and legislation.

“There’s an opportunity [with composting] to create local businesses and economies,” says Bradford. “But there’re things that residents, local governments, state governments and the federal government can do as well to encourage and speed that along. Doing so will have really big benefits for a lot of areas of our society.”

The author is the assistant editor for Waste Today and can be contacted at hrischar@gie.net

The composition of America’s waste stream reflects ever-evolving consumer preferences and product innovations. As this composition changes, waste companies are called upon to find innovative ways to meet the disposal and recycling challenges associated with these new materials. While this is a challenge for all waste management service providers, those charged with handling household hazardous waste have to be especially vigilant in ensuring safe operation and disposal during processing.

Veolia North America, Chicago, specializes in helping customers safely manage waste and treat, recycle and dispose of hazardous and regulated wastes.

According to Joe Baumann, general manager of Veolia North America, the average U.S. home can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of household hazardous waste over a lifetime, so helping residents find avenues to dispose of this material is critical. By hosting special household hazardous waste collection events and making it easy for citizens to drop off waste throughout the year at the company’s designated facilities, Veolia aims to help residents rid their homes of these would-be hazards.

Changes in the waste stream

While cleaners, paints and electronics remain some of the most prevalent household hazardous wastes that companies like Veolia have to contend with, the composition of the products themselves has changed in recent years.

“The household hazardous waste stream is constantly evolving, and streams can differ by regions across the United States,” Baumann says. “As residents turn to more efficient lighting like LEDs, Veolia North America has seen an increase in traditional fluorescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent lights at our collection events and sites. Conversely, there’s been a visible decrease in the amount of oil-based paints we receive as latex-based paints are viewed as more user-friendly and easier to clean up.”

"The household hazardous waste stream is constantly evolving, and streams can differ by regions across the United States.” –Joe Baumann, general manager of Veolia North America

According to Baumann, a best practice for managing bulbs is packaging them properly. He says that often, consumers place bulbs in whatever boxes they have lying around, which leaves these bulbs more susceptible to damage. For more secure disposal, Veolia North America recommends using specially designed packaging like that offered by RecyclePak, the company’s mail-back waste program, to contain the bulbs so they don’t break.

In regards to paint disposal, Baumann says it’s important to keep paint in the original containers. Mixing paints or placing them in random containers can become messy and reduce the ability for these items to be recycled.

Dealing with batteries

The emergence of lithium-ion batteries in a range of new electronic products has resulted in waste providers looking for better ways to manage these devices.

“Another example of the changing waste stream is the prevalence of lithium-ion batteries, which are growing in popularity due to their rechargeable and extended-life features” Baumann says. “Beyond cellphones, products like electronic cigarettes utilize these batteries and pose unique challenges because the cartridge and the battery are difficult to remove.”

As more electronics manufacturers rely on lithium batteries in their products, the threat to waste management companies grows. Thanks to their propensity to start fires when mishandled or incorrectly disposed of, Baumann says that waste management companies need to be especially vigilant in how they handle these materials.

“In 2017, 65 percent of waste and recycling facility fires in California were caused by improper disposal of lithium batteries,” Baumann says. “These batteries have been known to cause fires that burn for days and even completely destroy waste and recycling plants. Lithium batteries require extra care to process, recycle or dispose of due to the natural properties of lithium. So, the question becomes, ‘How can we safely manage and recycle this material?’”

Baumann says that special considerations need to be taken when collecting and storing batteries. Before disposal, he says that residents should properly package batteries with clear packaging tape on the ends to prevent them from reacting with other batteries or other electrical devices. Additionally, he says that municipal collection facilities need to ensure they are segregating batteries according to type with the ends covered to limit the possibility of a reaction that can trigger a fire.

Community partnerships

Baumann says that waste companies can help proactively address household hazardous waste challenges by making sure they are clearly communicating and promoting disposal best practices within their communities before these materials reach their facilities.

“Partnering with your municipality is key in addressing safety issues,” he says. “Waste and recycling companies can provide information on the hazards of improper disposal, which in turn, can be shared with residents prior to collection events or at collection sites. For example, residents may not know that lithium batteries are more powerful than alkaline batteries and need to be handled with more care, so companies should be sure they are communicating proactively to negate issues before they arise.”

Baumann says that mailers and social media work well for reaching an extensive audience. Some municipalities will place mailers within water or tax bills, similar to how communities communicate brush and yard waste pick-up dates and times. Additionally, he says that notifying the local media in advance is a great way for organizations to get the word out on collection events and household hazardous waste handling best practices.

Baumann says that educating residents on handling household chemicals is particularly important, as mismanaging these substances can be dangerous for consumers.

“Educating residents on the dangers of handling common household chemicals remains critical,” he says. “Residents often mix liquids by accident or attempt to create a ‘super cleaner’ in the home by combining ammonia and bleach. This creates a harmful gas called chloramine which can cause symptoms like shortness of breath and chest pain. Mixing other liquids in an atmosphere with high oxygen levels can ignite a fire.”

Because of the dangerous and unpredictable nature of household hazardous waste, Baumann says that every Veolia staff member is briefed on proper management protocols both at its facilities and at the company’s collection events.

“Prior to every household hazardous waste event we coordinate, the Veolia team will go over the created health and safety plan that can include the flow of traffic for the day, where the nearest hospital is, how to respond to a chemical reaction or crash, or what to do with items the event isn’t accepting,” he says.

To ensure caustic and dangerous materials don’t harm staff, he says that all workers must wear the requisite personal protective equipment (PPE). Depending on the event and location, this may include items such as earplugs or muffs, hardhats, gloves, safety glasses and shoes, respirators or coveralls, vests and full-body suits.

According to Baumann, the proper PPE is especially critical when handling items like gasoline, oil and antifreeze. To prevent breathing in noxious fumes, he says respirators are must-have accessories for workers. While it might seem unnecessary, he says that having the right PPE can help prevent against worst-case scenarios.

“Oftentimes, when we remove items from a resident’s car or receive materials, we don’t know what’s in the bag or packaging. How can employees protect themselves from the unknown?” Baumann says.

Helping facilitate collection

Despite the importance of ridding homes of household hazardous waste, oftentimes communities don’t have the resources to promote proper disposal. Baumann says that legislative and regulatory initiatives at the state and community level can help foster these programs and build awareness.

He cites Wisconsin, which is active in promoting its Clean Sweep initiative, as a state others can model. The Clean Sweep initiative is a grant program that provides reimbursement to communities that collect and dispose of household hazardous wastes, agricultural pesticides and prescription drugs. He says these grants may be awarded to counties, towns, villages, cities, tribes, sanitary and sewerage districts, or regional planning commissions to facilitate better and more uniform disposal practices. 

Additionally, he points to Sherburne County, Minnesota, as a model communities can look to for guidance. Sherburne County’s SCORE program is a grant program that provides money for the development and implementation of initiatives designed to fulfill areas such as electronic waste recycling, paper reduction in schools, special waste removal from the solid waste stream and creating markets for recycled products. Grant programs similar to these support communities in better managing household hazardous streams and reducing the volume of these wastes in homes.

Beyond state and community initiatives, Baumann says that manufacturers can play a bigger role in safe disposal of certain products through extended producer responsibility (EPR) measures.

He cites PaintCare Inc., which is a nonprofit that plans and operates paint stewardship programs throughout the country, as a model for helping residents get rid of old and unwanted paint.

In addition to nonprofits like PaintCare Inc. that focus on specific products, Baumann says that states like North Dakota have been successful in instituting EPR standards for particular household hazardous waste streams.

“In North Dakota, for example, Project Safe Send is funded by pesticide manufacturers through product registration fees in the state,” Baumann says. “Veolia partners with the North Dakota Department of Agriculture in collecting, repackaging and transporting waste chemicals. This program has been so successful, it hit an all-time record by collecting more than 520,000 pounds of unusable pesticides in 2019.”

Making it easy

Though it takes initiative to make household hazardous waste collection a priority, Baumann says that communities that place an emphasis on instituting these programs can set themselves up for successful disposal campaigns.

“Successful household hazardous waste programs happen when a municipality is truly committed from a financial perspective,” Baumann says. “Advertising helps communicate to residents that this service is available across a variety of channels and locations. A financial commitment also supports multiple event dates and locations versus limiting this service to once a year. Ease of drop off and convenience are also important to residents. In the end, these programs keep communities safe as potentially hazardous materials are removed from people’s homes, no longer presenting hazards to children and pets. These programs also provide a responsible means of disposal for residents, which safeguards the environment, including our waterways.”

The author is the editor of Waste Today and can be contacted at aredling@gie.net.

Nearly a decade ago, when Dallas-based Champion Waste & Recycling Vice President Paul Kuhar was searching for equipment that could handle his construction & demolition (C&D) recycling facility’s material loading needs, an excavator seemed like the right choice.

“In C&D, a lot of times the [excavators] we saw … were always perched on debris piles,” Kuhar says. “A lot of people we talked to said that was the best way to process material because the machine is elevated and you can see what and how you’re loading material. We weren’t really fans of that approach, but that seemed to be the norm, so we went with that [and purchased an excavator]. But what we quickly realized is that we didn’t need to be perched on piles. We were going to feed from the ground.”

In the company’s Celina, Texas-based C&D facility, operators had been loading from the floor directly onto Champion’s finger screen. However, this setup made it difficult to accurately account for the materials loaded onto the system due to the placement of the cab.

“Our setup posed challenges because the excavator would be fully extended and the operator couldn’t see where he was loading, so he would either overload the system or he would underload the system,” Kuhar says.

Though the equipment had its limitations, the company stuck with excavators for years. But around 2015, Kuhar started hearing buzz about a newer piece of equipment that could handle a versatile set of needs: material handlers.

With a 60,000-square-foot material recovery facility (MRF) dedicated to commercial recycling in Dallas in addition to the a 65,000-square-foot C&D MRF the company operated, Kuhar wondered whether material handlers would be a better fit for Champion’s needs. He picked the brains of scrap handlers, who were the primary users of material handlers at the time, along with C&D operators who had taken the plunge in adding these machines to their fleets. Through these discussions, Kuhar says he became convinced adding a material handler to the company’s equipment fleet could be a shrewd move.

After diligent research, Kuhar settled on a Sennebogen 821 E material handler, which Champion first debuted at its Dallas commercial MRF.

Suitable testing grounds

The Sennebogen 821 E-series of material handlers have a reach of nearly 43 feet. Perhaps just as important, the cabs can lift hydraulically up to almost 9 feet, allowing operators to get a better view of where they’re loading. Additionally, since the machine has four different types of attachments available, it offers users the ability to handle a variety of different materials and jobs.

According to Kuhar, the Dallas MRF proved to be an optimal place to test the machine’s versatility and flexibility.

“The way we load material there and the way that facility is set up, it’s harder to load with the front end loader,” Kuhar says. “Our commercial facility is very unique in the way we’re set up to load material. We don’t have the ability to have loading ramps and different dockets and things like that.”

Kuhar says operators quickly found the material handlers to be a better fit in the facility than the excavators they were used to. Kuhar says the machines offer a panoramic view of the ground in the facility, and they feature joysticks that move with the seat for simple control of the material handler’s arm.

“The material handler gave us the ability to load material a lot easier,” Kuhar says. “It has the raised cab, so the operator can see inside of the trailer that he’s loading. Plus, it’s a wheeled machine versus a track machine, so it’s less wear and tear on our paved surfaces there.”

After realizing improved efficiencies at its commercial MRF, Champion purchased another Sennebogen 821 material handler the following year for its C&D MRF.

C&D facility

While Kuhar says excavators are typically the primary equipment used to load material at C&D MRFs, the company’s operators were up for the challenge in switching to a new material handler.

“We made the switch initially and bought a material handler for our Celina C&D facility,” Kuhar says. “We demoed it, we tested it out. … But it was something different, something new, so there was a learning curve there.”

Kuhar says the excavator that operators were previously using had a grapple bucket and only moved in a straight-line motion. After converting to the material handler, they began trying out two new attachments—an orange peel grab and a clamshell grab—that could articulate 360 degrees.

“Sometimes you get rebar, wires, things like that. And so with the five-finger orange peel grapple, we’re able to grab the material, and since it articulates 360 degrees, you can spin the grapple around, detangle some stuff, kind of fluff up the material,” Kuhar says. “We tried both attachments, and our particular operators liked the five-finger-type grapple better than the clamshell.”

Operators also had to get used to being in an elevated cab in the new material handler as opposed to being close to the ground where they were constantly staring up at the bucket on the excavator that blocked their vision. However, over the course of a few weeks, the difference became second nature for the team’s operators, Kuhar says. Despite the changes, Kuhar says it only took operators about a month to surpass the learning curve and get used to the new piece of equipment.

“The operators really liked the fact that they were able to be elevated in the cab. It’s like a bird perch. They can get up there and they can see all the material. They can see how they’re loading it,” Kuhar says. “Your line of vision is much better, and the ability to have that articulating 360-degree motion with the attachments allows you to do some different things that you normally couldn’t do with an excavator.”

After proving itself in the company’s commercial and C&D facilities, Champion purchased one more Sennebogen. The company now has three total: Two at the C&D facility that each run nearly 10 hours a day, and then one at the commercial MRF that runs nearly eight hours a day.

“The advantage for us really has been ease of loading. The operator is elevated in that cab, he can see all the material, he can load more efficiently, he can pick out things,” Kuhar says.

He adds that material handlers make prescreening easier, as operators can pick out large material that would otherwise damage the screen.

The material handlers have reduced damage to other equipment, too. Kuhar says even the best operators would sometimes damage crossbeams for auto-tarp systems on transfer trailers when using excavators simply because their line of vision was blocked. Now, operators have a clear view nearly everywhere they’re working thanks to the added lift from the material handlers, which has helped cut down on accidents.

Even with the transition, Champion hasn’t completely abandoned the company’s excavators. Kuhar says they still come in handy in a pinch, but that it is unlikely Champion will deviate from the material handlers being the company’s workhorse anytime soon.

“The excavator has its place in the C&D recycling world, and we still use it, … but the precision with material handlers is a lot better—at least from our standpoint,” Kuhar says. “There’s always going to be a debate amongst companies about what is the best option, but in our opinion, we’ve been really happy with the friendliness of how our material handlers can load, and the operators really enjoy it.”

The author is an assistant editor for Waste Today and can be contacted at tcottom@gie.net.