Change can be incremental when it comes to waste collection vehicles. While these workhorses of the road aren’t adorned with near the bells and whistles that come standard on many late-model passenger vehicles, some manufacturers are starting to equip trucks with new safety features to better protect drivers.

Waste Pro, Longwood, Florida, announced on July 27 that it had become the first waste company to purchase Autocar ACX severe duty cabover vehicles outfitted with Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) technology designed by Paris-based WABCO.

According to Waste Pro, these vehicles “set a new standard for safety for drivers, customers and communities” thanks to the intuitive technology embedded in the trucks.

Specifically, these vehicles feature six advanced safety features meant to help protect drivers on the road, including:

• Electronic stability control systems (ESC) that actively intervene when the vehicle is understeering or oversteering in order to maintain vehicle stability
• Rollover stability control systems (RSC) that intervene when the vehicle is at risk of a driver-induced rollover event
• Advanced emergency braking systems (AEBS) where the vehicle detects an impending collision and actively engages emergency brakes
• Forward collision warning (FCW) where the driver is visibly and audibly warned of an impending collision
• Stationary lane departure warning (SLDW) where a steady light located on the A-pillar will illuminate with an audible warning when the driver is veering into another lane; and
• Blind spot detection (BSD) that incorporates a flashing light located on the A-pillar that warns the driver of a vehicle in his or her blind spot.

Cliff Buck, director of national accounts for Autocar, says that the company had worked in conjunction with WABCO over the course of two years to integrate the company’s ADAS technology into its chassis. This technology, which WABCO first introduced to the commercial vehicle industry in 2008, is designed to alert motorists of dangerous driving behavior and obstacles that may be difficult to detect.

Although the integration might seem like a no-brainer, Buck notes that there were several challenges the company had to overcome during the testing phase to prove the system’s functionality.

“While the automotive industry has successfully utilized similar technology for a number of years, its use has proven to be a serious challenge in the refuse industry and other specialized markets,” Buck says. “As part of Autocar’s efforts to address these challenges, Autocar built a custom test chassis last September, which included the ADAS technology. The test chassis then started its track and on-road testing in early October of last year. With the numerous truck configurations Autocar offers to its customers, the testing had to be extensive in order to prove functionality, reliability and increased safety over the range of its axle configurations, shifting centers of gravity, and different weight ratings.”

Buck says that these tests were performed in all road, traffic and weather conditions—including winter testing in Michigan’s harsh climate—to ensure consistent performance. The company also made sure that the ADAS hardware would be subject to rigorous testing to ensure that it would handle the severe-duty environment of the refuse industry.

A welcomed addition

Investing in safety technology for its collection operations is nothing new for Waste Pro. According to the company, trucks are outfitted with the latest onboard camera and video monitoring systems, fleet management software, safety lighting and steering and braking systems to ensure top performance.

However, before investing in a given solution, there is a significant amount of internal discussion that takes place to weigh the pros and cons of adopting various technologies.

According to Dave Kutschinski, vice president of fleet and maintenance at Waste Pro, the company sought input from a number of team members when deciding on the merits of investing in Autocar’s trucks with ADAS technology.

After discussing and vetting the technologies in house, Waste Pro decided these driver safety features had the potential to give operators the tools they need to be safer behind the wheel.

“This technology has been available in the automotive industry since at least early 2010 from various car manufacturers, and we have monitored the various safety technologies coming to market for over 20 years with the focus on identifying those technologies that provide and enhance the safety of our vehicles and equipment working in and around the public at large,” Kutschinski says. “Our intent is to provide our professional drivers with vehicles and equipment that incorporate safety features that add to their toolbox of knowledge and usable technology in an effort to keep them and the public safe throughout each workday.”

Fixing an industrywide problem

The importance of investing in equipment that keeps drivers and the public safe has never been greater, as the waste collection industry continues to be among those with the highest rates of on-the-job injuries, illness and fatalities.

According to Abe Aon, business leader of fleet solutions in North America for WABCO parent company ZF Group, both the high-risk and high-cost nature of the waste industry make it an ideal fit for adopting driver safety technology.

“The waste and recycling industry is the fifth most dangerous occupation in the United States. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, workers in solid waste collection were also in the top three job classifications to have the highest number of nonfatal injuries and illnesses, most caused by overexertion, being struck-by, striking against, or being compressed in equipment,” Aon says. “Data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows that the average cost of a waste collection truck accident that results in an injury is approximately $97,000. It has also been found that the average cost of a heavy-duty vehicle accident that results in a fatality is $3,895,843.”

Kutschinski said that there are several core issues behind the high rate of incidences involving waste collection trucks.

These include distracted driving by both the public and waste operators; passenger cars performing risky maneuvers to get around waste vehicles due to the stop-and-go nature of collections; stationary obstructions in and around the tight locations collection vehicles must operate in; and low visibility of people and/or objects in drivers’ blind spots.

Kutschinski says that Waste Pro will have the first of these vehicles on the road in Q1 of 2021, and the plan is to incorporate the technology in all of its new Autocar vehicles starting with model year 2021-22 vehicles.

When asked how the company is hoping to measure the impact of the new safety systems in its trucks, Kutschinski said Waste Pro is going to be actively measuring reductions in accidents and injuries among its drivers.

While these safety features offer hope for cutting down on accidents, Buck adds the caveat that these ADAS systems are only tools and cannot replace old-fashioned vigilance during vehicle operation.

“It is important to remember that these systems do not replace the skill of the driver in avoiding an accident, but merely act as accident mitigation systems, which may reduce the severity of an accident and may, in certain circumstances, assist in preventing an accident,” Kutschinski says. “The driver is always responsible for the vehicle, and [he or she] should remain focused on the road and be ready to intervene at any time. The driver should never just rely on these ADAS systems to prevent an accident.”

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

Dozens of speakers from diverse business sectors shared insights into commodity markets during Recycling Today’s 2020 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference International (PPRCi), which wrapped up Oct. 22. Here are some highlights from the three-day broadcast event.

Day one

The first day of the conference kicked off with a keynote from Waste Management Executive Vice President and COO John Morris. From improving recyclability to increasing automation, Morris and Recycling Today Editor DeAnne Toto covered a wide range of topics.

Following Morris’ interview, several other strong sessions rounded out the first day of PPRCi. The “Closing the Circle” session featured panelists discussing ways to improve recycling and manufacturing. Then, speakers on a session titled, “Improving the Recycling Supply Chain” offered their takes on how to better connect stakeholders in the recycling supply chain.

The first day of PPRCi wrapped up with a series of interviews and a roundtable discussion titled, “Putting Advancements in MRF Technology to Work.” Panelists and speakers talked about technologies they are applying at their material recovery facilities (MRFs) as well as the technologies they see helping in the future.

Day two

The second day of PPRCi kicked off with a 2021 economic outlook provided by Robert Dye, a chief economist with Comerica Bank. Following his presentation, speakers and panelists discussed regulatory changes across the globe in a session titled, “Global Markets: The Changing Regulatory Landscape.”

After that session, PPRCi speakers presented on postconsumer resin (PCR) demand in a session titled, “Rising to Meet PCR Demand.”

Day two of the conference concluded with a session titled, “The Outlook for OCC,” which featured interviews with an analyst and an executive at WestRock, as well as a roundtable discussion with representatives from MRFs and global paper mills.

Day three

The third day of PPRCi featured content on various topics related to paper and plastics recycling. The day started with two roundtable discussions. The first roundtable offered paper mill buyers’ input on recovered fiber trends. The second roundtable featured plastic scrap consumers who provided their inputs on trends with plastics recycling.

Following the two roundtable discussions, the “Designing Products & Packaging for Recovery” session featured three speakers who talked about designing for recycling initiatives and evolving attitudes regarding recycled content. PPRCi finished with a session on recovered fiber pulp and mixed paper markets where Bill Moore, president of Moore & Associates, presented on developments in recycled pulp capacity while a recycler also offered his input on mixed paper demand.

Ahead of PPRCi, Recycling Today also hosted its MRF Operations Forum, a one-day event featuring content on MRF management. The one-day event featured sessions on robotics, optical sorters, maintenance and more.

For more information on sessions and speakers, and to register for all of this content on-demand, visit https://paperplasticsna.recyclingtodayevents.com

Like many of us, I’ve spent considerably more time at home over the last half-year-plus. Between working from home and cutting back on social engagements, I’ve begun to notice things I’ve never picked up on before.

One of the observations that has gotten my attention is the frequency in which Amazon, FedEx and UPS drivers navigate through my neighborhood. Every couple of hours, one of these clearly demarcated trucks or vans cruises down my street, with the driver stopping every few houses to drop off a package or two.

While I chalked up noticing the frequency of these trucks passing by to simply spending more time at home, data suggests that is not entirely the case.

Recent data from IBM’s U.S. Retail Index, as reported by Yahoo! Money, suggests that the pandemic has expedited the shift from in-person retail shopping to e-commerce by roughly 5 years. This manifested itself in department stores and other non-essential retailers seeing a decline in revenue of 25 percent in the first quarter and a whopping 75 percent in the second quarter. In all, the report estimates that department store revenues will decline 60 percent for the full year as e-commerce grows by close to 20 percent.

The waste industry has seen this shift firsthand as commercial volumes have decreased in many markets while residential volumes have escalated. And although these changes could be linked to a temporary imbalance caused by COVID, some economists and waste industry leaders are projecting some permanent changes to how we shop, where we work and where we’re producing our waste.

With shopping malls and mom-and-pop retail locations alike closing or facing an upswing in vacancies due to economic hardships both related and unrelated to COVID, haulers are being forced to rethink their operations.

Waste Management CEO Jim Fish recently spoke with Yahoo! about the impact of the COVID crisis on the waste industry.

Specific to the shift to e-commerce, Fish said that the company is being forced to reevaluate what both people and businesses are recycling, “The impact on our business is cardboard in our recycle stream. It’s coming from a different place. Instead of coming from a Sears store, which we might have picked up before, now it’s coming in small quantities from residential customers as opposed to big commercial customers.”

Fish went on to say that cardboard volumes have increased in the residential stream by about 15 to 20 percent over the past few years, which has only been exacerbated by COVID. This coincides with an increase in residential bottle and can recycling. Still, he noted that overall recycling volumes are down about 4 to 5 percent on the year when combining both commercial and residential volumes.

As the long-term implications of these shifting trends begin to be realized in the coming months and years, everything from how haulers think about their collection operations to how they set pricing is sure to change along with it.

To see what waste operators are saying about where the industry is trending, read “Where are we with waste?”

The past year has been marked by notable extremes in the waste sector. Healthy revenues, pricing and M&A activity that wrung in 2020 were offset by a COVID-inspired downswing that prompted slowdowns in the commercial sector, increased residential volumes and an uncertain economic forecast.

As we head toward 2021, most public waste companies have reported that revenues, volumes and M&A interest have started to solidify after mid-year lows.

At Waste Today’s 2020 Corporate Growth Conference held Oct. 14, waste industry executives, investors and analysts tried to make sense of recent changes in the industry and laid out expectations for the near future.

Effram Kaplan, managing director for Brown Gibbons Lang & Co., moderated a session titled “Market Dislocation: Where is the Market Post-Coronavirus?” The session covered the near- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the environmental services and waste markets.

Panelists included Bob Cappadona, president and COO, Veolia North America; Pat Dovigi, founder and CEO, GFL Environmental; and David Stanton, president of Harsco’s Clean Earth division.

COVID brings changes

Dovigi noted that COVID has had more of an impact on business in certain regions than in others due to the presence of, and adherence to, stay-at-home orders. He noted that citizens in Canadian markets generally abided by such mandates without much pushback, which allowed for less disruption outside of a 6- or 8-week window in March and April when all but essential businesses were shuttered. Similarly, he noted that U.S. operations experienced significantly different ramifications from the virus based on the state, population density within those states, and how strictly stay-at-home orders and mask wearing were prioritized

Dovigi also stated that business in urban markets was more likely to be affected than those in more rural locales.

“When COVID hit, it was more of a regional dynamic based on how hard-hit the regions were and how drastic the shutdowns were, so I don’t think the [bottom fell out] industry-wide,” Dovigi said. “In urban markets, there was much more of a shift towards residential volumes versus commercial volumes.”

"When COVID hit, it was more of a regional dynamic based on how hard-hit the regions were and how drastic the shutdowns were, so I don’t think the [bottom fell out] industry-wide,” –Pat Dovigi, founder and CEO, GFL Environmental

Dovigi said that the first two months of the pandemic brought about increases in urban market volumes of 10 to 15 percent on the residential side and decreased commercial volumes between 20 and 30 percent. In rural and secondary markets, business was still negatively affected, but the blowback was not as drastic due to more lenient stay-at-home orders and less population density.

As of early Q4, Dovigi said that volumes have normalized a bit, and are up only 2 to 5 percent year over year on the residential side and down between 5 and 10 percent on average on the commercial side because of lingering impacts on restaurants, sporting venues and other businesses.

Dovigi noted that he expects a “rebalancing of the volumes” to occur toward summer 2021 as people return to more of a normal routine with work and commercial spending.

Cappadona followed up on Dovigi’s comments to say that Veolia’s operations fared differently at the onset of the pandemic not only based on location, but also between different lines of business.

“As companies moved to a work-from-home [blueprint], we immediately saw an uptick in business and people prepared for vacating their facilities,” he said. “In the April and May timeframe, we were dealing with decontamination work that we were doing for some of our core customers and preparing these customers so they could go back to a work from the office scenario, and we were also dealing with some geographic issues.

“We saw a major impact in the New York/Tri-State area, while at that time, other parts of the country were continuing to operate as they always had. And now we’ve seen a shift of that as we’ve gone through the summer and into the fall. At the end of the day, our business mix changed dramatically over time, but we remained busy throughout. But the type of work we were doing and the type of customer we were serving may have shifted a bit over time.”

Cappadona noted that Veolia works for a number of companies and universities involved in pharmaceutical research, which is one segment that has been working around the clock and has required a pickup in service intervals. Conversely, the company’s municipal accounts were hit hard and its general manufacturing market customer volumes have been inconsistent.

“How does that wind up impacting the different businesses we’re associated with? The markets we can predict that are going to be up include pharmaceuticals, biotech, research—we’ll continue to see activity there,” he said. “Some of the other business segments are going to be a little bit more unpredictable such as in general manufacturing. Oil and gas has been relegated to a new norm with the stabilization of the price of oil to this point, but heading into the winter, our focus is going to be being nimble enough to adjust to the market.”

He says that the ability of Veolia’s workers to adjust on the fly to meet the needs of its customers has been pivotal in the company’s performance during the last half year.

“They were scared to death of getting sick and scared to death of losing their jobs, and we worked to make sure they were comfortable [on both those accounts] immediately to ensure the sustainability of what we do every day,” he said. “And our group responded outstandingly to the challenge to put us in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities ahead that we have.”

Stanton said that Harsco was forced to shift gears coming into the year as it went from riding a wave of healthy business to having to suddenly face upheaval among its customer base.

“It feels like it was 10 years ago, but Q1 was a very robust quarter, and if you focus on retail, commercial and healthcare, it might have even been record-setting in terms of performance, but it was certainly one of our peak quarters in the history of our businesses,” he said. “Then we hit Q2 and experienced those massive shutdowns. But doing some more prognostication, I think some of the top retailers you saw in 2019 versus where they are going to be in 2021, you’re going to see some massive shifts, and the big one is going to be from big box to online retailers.”

He said that the shift to e-commerce in the retail space may have accelerated trends by 5 to 10 years, as this sector grew 20 percent in a quarter’s time.

“The adoption rate went through the roof [with e-commerce], and it’s never going back to what it was,” he said. “It might become adjusted [downward when COVID slows], but it is never going back to where it was. So, we do see and are projecting a shift away from just having the box retailers to [there being a bigger focus on] distribution and logistics management of retail materials, which will be a growing business for us.”

Stanton said that the gap between the Amazons of the world and the brick-and-mortar retail customers is going to widen, while bankruptcies and shutdowns might become more commonplace for retailers.

Overall, Stanton noted that although businesses slowly started to come back in Q3, the company’s volumes have been hit-or-miss depending on location, with some markets seeing booming activity while others struggle to build back to normal. He added that Harsco is working to bridge communication gaps with its customers to provide better service that aligns with changing needs.

“I think this is going to be a really long road back, and we’re going to have to stay close to our customers, talk and communicate with them a lot, make sure we’re meeting their needs and understand where they’re going so these adjustments that are going to happen are things we are prepared for,” he said.

Photo Courtesy of Tanzi Propst, The Park Record.

M&A appetites

M&A activity in the waste and environmental services markets continued at a torrid pace going into the year. When COVID hit, it caused many companies to slow, but not halt, their appetites for activity.

“On March 13, we hit a very quick pause and had to consider what the impact was going to be to the market. At the time, I thought [the fallout of the pandemic would be [measured in] weeks, and it’s been months,” Cappadona said. “I think a year, a year and a half [is when we’ll be completely back to normal], but I do see Veolia’s trajectory the same. Where we were pre-COVID hasn’t changed in terms of our investment in North America. We continue to develop our assets and look at opportunities that fit well in terms of technology, in terms of geography, for Veolia going forward. You’ll see us do things before the end of the year. You’ll see us be focused going into 2021, and we have a positive outlook here in North America.”

Cappadona said that the company is keeping on its trajectory of measured M&A and is assessing opportunities as they come about. Although the economic downturn has caused potential complications in terms of pulling deals through for some, he notes that it may help fast-track deals in the future for business owners looking to sell.

“Maybe there have been some opportunities that have been created because of a result of the stress that some companies have been under over the last few months that may create [openings where we’d be able to do a deal now] that maybe we wouldn’t have otherwise,” he said.

Stanton said that Harsco anticipates completing some smaller tuck-in acquisitions related to its recent ESOL and Clean Earth deals, but there are also bigger moves that may be in store for the company to help it transition into a “single-thesis environmental services company.”

“More ambitiously as you’ll hear from Harsco, there are still strategic opportunities to make bigger moves in the environmental services direction,” he said. “Those are going to be big moves, carefully contemplated and timed with our strategic desires, and somewhat, market cooperation.”

Dovigi said that going into 2021, GFL will be primarily focused on integrating assets from its WCA acquisition and those divestiture assets from the Waste Management/Advanced Disposal deal, but that the company’s ample experience with asset integration will position it to be aggressive in short order if the right deal were to come along.

“The first three to four months are going to be solely focused on executing on the integration plan that we have [for the Waste Management/Advanced Disposal divestiture and WCA deals], but assuming that goes the way we think it will, … we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming [in terms of looking at M&A] like we have over the last 13 to 14 years,” he said.

Panelists in another Corporate Growth Conference session titled “The State of Mergers & Acquisitions” shared similar sentiments regarding slowed activity during Q2, but noted that there appears to be ample opportunity for those looking to buy or sell a waste business as 2020 comes to a close.

Charles Appleby, founder of Advanced Disposal Services, said that now is the right time for those looking to make a deal.

“We believe that [the impacts of] COVID-19 will be short-lived—maybe longer than we expected it to be, but I think it would be a mistake to take your foot off the accelerator if that’s what you’re doing because I think now is a good time to be looking at the right opportunities and to take advantage of them,” he said.

Joe Cassin, vice president of business development at Waste Management, said that although there have been some slowdowns to activity, Waste Management is moving forward and looking at what deals the company might be able to capitalize on.

“I think the time is right to continue the [M&A] momentum going forward,” Cassin said. “I will say regarding deal flow, it’s not as robust as it was last year in 2019, but we’ve closed half a dozen transactions this year and have several more lined up that will close before the end of the year, and I’m sure several new ones that will go into the first quarter of 2021.”

Photo courtesy of Veolia

Economic outlooks

Business dealings don’t happen in a vacuum, which is why forecasting the economic conditions of 2021 is critical for understanding what may await the waste industry.

Jeff Korzenik, economist at Fifth Third, gave his thoughts on future trends in a Corporate Growth Conference session tilted “Economic Outlook: 2021 and Beyond.”

As part of his forecast, Korzenik said that the business mix in the U.S. will change based on how various industries have been affected.

“We see the post-pandemic economy being [highlighted by] not so much new trends, but by trends that have become supercharged by the disruptions of the pandemic,” he said. “And those disruptions are in policy, industry, geographies, even employer/employee relationships, and then we think there is another trend that is going to accelerate in the wake of the pandemic, and that’s the opportunity to bring more manufacturing jobs back to the United States.”

Although the business landscape may shift to accommodate new trends, Korzenik said he is optimistic that there won’t be a pandemic-fueled hangover that will cast a shadow over the economy as we move through the coming year.

“I think it’s critical to understand that the recession that we’ve been through [due to COVID]—and we’re probably out of it—is unlike most recessions we’ve had in our lifetimes. … Unlike in 2008-09, we’ve gone into this [recession] with no economic imbalances,” he said. “Historically, you go into recessions when there are imbalances. In the case of 2008-09, we had too much housing inventory. We had too much leverage in the financial system. It takes a long time to wring those excesses out and to repair the damage. This time around, we had a healthcare-inspired shutdown of the economy, but we didn’t have those imbalances, and that bodes well for the opportunity to rebound quickly.”

The recent upturn in COVID cases, a new presidential administration and the promise of new vaccines are just a few of the variables that will be sure to play an outsized role in determining how the waste industry fares as we trend into a new year. As we punctuate what happened in waste in 2020, the prevailing sentiment from many seems to be that the waste industry isn’t where it was, yet, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

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