solid waste management

October 3, 2016

SCS provides several reasons.

A solid waste rate analysis will provide your agency with a deeper understanding of how to establish rates and appropriately allocate costs to the various functions of your operation. This financial analysis can also be used to estimate and plan for various contingencies year-by-year.

For example, if your agency would like to buy new collection vehicles or expand your landfill or recycling center, a rate study will allow you to assess how the purchase would impact your current budget. You can then determine if you will have adequate surpluses during the fiscal year to procure these items or if a rate adjustment might be necessary at some point.

Importantly, if the final recommendation of the rate study is a rate increase, you will be armed with information that will strengthen your case when requesting a fee increase.

Read and share this newly published article by Marc J. Rogoff, Ph.D., and Laurel Urena, M.S., E.I.T., of SCS Engineers. Learn more about this valuable service at SCS Engineers and see how others are using rate analysis.

Read and share the full article

Learn more about Rate Analysis

Read how one organization used rate analysis as part of their solid waste master plan

September 14, 2016

“This program directly supports the county’s Roadmap to a Sustainable Waste Management Future by helping businesses to implement recycling programs,” says Leonard. “And not only recycling but waste reduction, as well, all of which, of course, contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, resource management and sustainable materials management.”

Read the article about L.A. County’s Plan for Sustainable Waste Management

August 17, 2016

SCS periodically prepares technical bulletins to highlight items of interest to our clients and friends. These are published on our website. This SCS Technical Bulletin addresses:

Inactive Surface Impoundments and EPA Direct Final Rules for Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities.

Read and share the SCS Technical Bulletin here.

SCS Coal Combustion Residual Services

July 20, 2016

Imagine 170 dump trucks stacked one atop another. That’s how much construction debris CDR diverted from landfills in 2015. Read about CDR’s award winning strategy.

Construction and Demolition Recycling Inc. is a California state certified C&D recycling facility which handles debris from the renovation, construction, and demolition of commercial interior spaces. CDR is the only facility in California that accepts only commercial interior debris, and the only facility in the country that can show a better than 80% diversion rate of these materials traditionally buried in landfills.

CDR’s staff also salvages usable items such as furniture, desks, chairs, file cabinets, and more, for reuse, donating more than 50 tons of these materials every month to not-for-profit agencies and other organizations. All of this allows CDR to divert over 80% of all inbound debris from landfills, a diversion rate that has been third party-verified by the Recycling Certification Institute.

The CDR facility in South Gate, California is a fully permitted C&D/inert debris processing and transfer facility. The facility is owned and operated by Interior Removal Specialist, Inc. (IRS), a demolition company that conducts demolition activities primarily of the interior of offices and other commercial buildings. Construction and Demolition Recycling Incorporated’s goal is to lead by example; showing that the diversion of tenant improvement demolition debris can be accomplished as efficiently and cost effectively as the debris from more traditionally recognized demolition debris. CDR has become the first and so far only recycling facility in Southern California that has earned Third Party Diversion Certification from The Recycling Certification Institute, making CDR the only facility in Southern California that is eligible to provide the US Green Building Council LEED Pilot Point for facilities with 3rd party verification.

Read the full article to learn some of the innovative strategies of this successful recycling company in “Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling Program; How CDR was Conceived and How CDR Remains Sustainable.”

Solid Waste Management, Sustainability, and Recycling Programs

July 13, 2016

By following the simple procedures governing selective routing in the commercial space, it is possible to turn a high disposal garbage collection system into a high diversion recycling system, without incurring additional costs or losing collection revenue. Read more…

Tracie Onstad Bills of SCS Engineers and Richard Gertman of For Sustainability Too explain the steps for commercial-stream routing and management of commercial recyclables with remarkable results in their Resource Recycling article published in June 2016.

Questions? Ask Tracie, she writes a blog series about recycling.

Contact Tracie directly. 

July 6, 2016

Contamination causes major problems for recycling programs. Improving communication plays a pivotal role in solving the issue.

Tracie Onstad Bills, Northern California Director, Sustainable Materials Management at SCS Engineers

Thank you for the responses and questions about my blog Minimizing Contamination in Recycling. It seems appropriate to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions and send more advice. Any program should be tailored to your current collection system; what works and what doesn’t work for your locality; the demographics of your community; and how your community views recycling.

In light of those considerations, here are some recommendations for ways to minimize contamination in recyclables:

• Mail outreach materials to business and residents on a regular basis. When your community is adding recycling or switching to a new recycling program, mail outreach starting 6 months before the new services begin to inform and prepare the community for the change. Then every other month send new information about the program so people get used to hearing about the upcoming program, what is expected of them, and the positive difference they are making in their community.
• Use social media to get your message out, Including NextDoor, Facebook, Twitter, the local government/community website, newspapers, community TV stations, and radio. One of the people who responded to my previous blog, Cyril May, even uses magic as a part of his environmental outreach. He is the recycling coordinator for the City of Waterbury, CT, and uses magic to demonstrate the power of recycling when he goes door-to-door or speaks at schools. “Turning a ripped up newspaper into a new newspaper shows the magic of recycling that everyone has,” he says. “Causing dollar bills to vanish in smoke and flame showcases the taxpayer dollars lost when we send valuable recyclables to incinerators.”
• After the service starts, follow up with additional outreach. Highlight what people should do as well as what they should not do. Yes – I am a firm believer in excellent outreach, education, and communication!
• Some studies have suggested providing trash cans that are the same size as the recycling can, because when the recycling is free, people often will throw their trash into the recycling containers in order to keep a small trash container for a cheaper cost. I am not an advocate of this method, however, I am a realist and know that this is one cause of contamination, so keep an eye on it!
• Make sure your hauler keeps track of any contamination issues and the causes. Knowing what the contamination is and why it is caused, will help you determine the next steps on how to address it. For example, if you have slight contamination because residents and businesses are throwing in items that they think are recyclable, you can continue to educate them about what can and cannot be recycled. However, if they are putting trash in the recycling containers in order to save costs, that is another matter that needs to be addressed appropriately, and may include citations or fines.
• Many people throw more than they should into their recycling containers because they think “the hauler will sort it at the facility,” and so they don’t feel the need to be extra cautious about how they sort. As part of your outreach, I would recommend letting the community know that the cleaner the materials, the better the market and the more economical the service. They need to understand that there are consequences when they are not careful about how they recycle.
• Make sure that the materials you accept in your recycling program can, in fact, be recycled. Cities often accept items in recycling containers because they can be recycled in theory (for example, milk cartons and polystyrene), when, in fact, they may not be. Depending on the local dynamics, recycling markets, recoverability at the recycling facility, or other barriers, certain materials may or may not be recycled. Be consistent with the materials you accept and don’t take items that may cause confusion.
• In California, we have very diverse demographics and multiple languages. Providing outreach in those different languages, and even better, with pictures, will help your community fully understand the recycling program.
• Go into the schools to get the kids engaged and excited about recycling. If you are starting a new recycling program, facilitate an assembly right before and/or after the service starts. Kids often influence their family’s behavior in such matters.
• Multi-family dwellings should be treated differently than single-family residences. Because residents of multi-family dwellings do not typically pay for the service directly, their containers will almost always be contaminated because there is no ownership of the responsibility. There are other barriers as well, such as illegal dumping, fluctuation of tenants, move-in or move-out purging of material, etc. I have a different set of recommendations for multi-family dwellings which I consider one of the toughest nuts to crack.
• Make sure the recycling haulers place non-collection tags on containers that are contaminated. After a few violation notices and the threat to suspend service, residents and businesses usually improve, especially when they realize that someone is watching them.
• Be diligent when transitioning to your new recycling program and closely monitor how your residents and businesses are doing. I would recommend having a few interns go out for the first month or two and conduct random lid flips. Leave notes that say “good job – you’re an excellent recycler” to reinforce the good behavior. This will also provide a pulse on how the program is doing, where the problems are, and if there are certain districts of the city that are more contaminated than others. By isolating the areas that have high contamination, you can focus your outreach and education to the regions that need message reinforcement.
• Be flexible. Remember that your program will be evolving, so go with the flow, and be sure to celebrate your successes!

Learn more about recycling programs by reading Success In Selective Routing – Resource Recycling or the SCS project and case studies below:

• Smart Business Recycling Programs – Los Angeles County, California
• Visual Characterization and Commercial Recycling / Organic Technical Assistance – Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority, California
• Waste Diversion – Mid-America Regional Council Solid Waste Management District, Missouri
• Solid Waste Master Planning – Escambia County, Florida
• Zero Waste Strategies Plan – Santa Monica, California
• Food Waste and Compostables Feasibility Study – Skagway, Alaska
• Recycling Feasibility Study with Landfill Cost Analysis – Lawton, Oklahoma

As always, feel free to send me your questions and comments. Contact Tracie here.

June 29, 2016

SCS Engineers’ Tracie Onstad Bills and Leslie Lukacs were both selected to receive the California Resource Recovery Association’s (CRRA) prestigious Service Award this year. According to CRRA Executive Director, John H. Dane, the award recognizes “exceptional individual service to the organization and a contribution of time or resources beyond expectations.” That sounds like an SCSer alright.

Tracie Bills is SCS’s Sustainable Materials Management Director and is based in our Pleasanton, CA, location. She has been on the CRRA board for 10 years and has served in several leadership positions within the organization, including as its President for three years. Her expertise revolves around commercial recycling technical assistance, environmental purchasing, large venue and event zero waste programs, research and sustainability planning, garbage hauler franchise compliance and review, construction and demolition program / ordinance analysis and writing, climate inventory compilation, research and feasibility studies to help clients with comprehensive waste prevention and zero waste programs.

Leslie Lukacs serves as a Sustainable Materials Management Specialist in our Santa Rosa, CA, office. She has been on the CRRA board for 12 years and also served in a variety of leadership positions. She also founded CRRA’s Green Initiatives for Venues and Events technical council and was an instructor for CRRA’s Resource Management Certification Program for 5 years. Leslie specializes in the design and implementation of sustainable materials management and zero waste programs and is a pioneer in the greening of venues and events throughout the nation. Her extensive expertise in the logistics of zero waste, recycling, and composting programs, such as outreach management, business assistance, master planning, waste audits and characterization studies, extended producer responsibility ordinance preparation and implementation, compliance, grant writing, and administration are all key to successful long-term programs.

Both women were selected by the CRRA Board of Directors to be the 2016 recipients of the Service Award. The awards will be presented at the organization’s Annual Conference Awards Ceremony on August 9 in Sacramento.

Congratulations, Ladies. We are so proud of our SCS Professionals!

CRRA is California’s statewide recycling association. It is the oldest and one of the largest non-profit recycling organizations in the U.S. CRRA is dedicated to achieving environmental sustainability in and beyond the state through Zero Waste strategies including product stewardship, waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting. The organization provides its members with resources to advance local, regional and statewide waste reduction efforts which result in critical environmental and climate protection outcomes. Members represent all aspects of California’s reduce-reuse-recycle-compost economy and work for cities, counties, municipal districts, and businesses as well as hauling companies, material processors, non-profit organizations, state agencies, and allied professionals.

June 6, 2016

This innovative sustainable materials management approach involves strategically picking up loads from businesses that generate similar types of discards. The linked article discusses the approach of following simple procedures governing selective routing in the commercial space.

Using a phased methodology, it is possible to turn a high-disposal garbage collection system into a high-diversion recycling system, without incurring additional costs or losing collection revenue. Dumpsters behind shopping plazas and other sites can become opportunities at the center of a thriving materials recovery program.

Take me to the full article.

About the Authors:

Richard Gertman is the owner of For Sustainability Too in San Jose, CA.

Tracie Onstad Bills has been in the Environmental and Resource Material Management Field for over 20 years. Her expertise revolves around commercial recycling technical assistance, environmental purchasing, large venue and event zero waste programs, research and sustainability planning, garbage hauler franchise compliance and review, construction and demolition program / ordinance analysis and writing, climate inventory compilation, research and feasibility studies to help clients with comprehensive waste prevention and zero waste programs. Ms. Bills has a BA in Environmental Science from San Jose State University, is a CRRA Board member and belongs to the SWANA Gold Rush Chapter, National Recycling Coalition and the Northern California Recycling Association. Contact Tracie here.

May 30, 2016

Glass accounts for almost 5% of the municipal solid waste stream; state and local agencies have set ambitious zero waste goals; many agencies are not ready to give up on glass recycling.  How do they manage to keep their programs viable despite the cost of processing, transportation, and the challenge of cross contamination?

Read Marc Rogoff’s article here to discover how several entities across the country have reexamined their models and priorities to make glass recycling work.

Sustainable Solid Waste Managment Planning and Programs

May 12, 2016

“Our clients enable SCS to build, grow, and sustain an engineering firm dedicated to solving environmental challenges,” said Jim Walsh, President and CEO of SCS. “We sincerely thank our friends, colleagues and, in particular, our clients for helping us achieve a highly regarded ranking each year.”

Firms are ranked in terms of revenue by Engineering News-Record magazine (ENR), as reported in the May 2, 2016, issue of the “ENR Top 500 Design Firms Sourcebook.” SCS has made the Top 500 list since its publication in 2002 and has ranked in the top 100 of that list since 2008.

When sorted by firm type, SCS Engineers is ranked the second largest environmental engineering firm (ENV) and is ranked in the “Top 20 Sewerage and Solid Waste” service firms in the nation. SCS has made this top 20 list since 2002.

Later in the year, ENR will publish additional resources and lists, including the “Top 200 Environmental Firms” issue, typically published in the month of August.

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