Getting Haulers to Recycle More

[Brewer, Gretchen (DEP)]

MassDEP is conducting a brief informal survey of states, counties and municipalities that regulate, permit, or have voluntary agreements with solid waste and recycling haulers aimed at getting haulers and their customers, especially commercial generators, to recycle more.  What are the requirements or choices haulers have within these models relative to: outreach and education to customers on recycling requirements; providing incentives (such as rebates and revenue/profit sharing based on commodity sales); reporting to customers and/or agencies on amounts recycled, composted, or trashed; providing recycling services (such as parallel access); and any other thoughts.  We are currently working on exploring the possibility of a voluntary certification program for haulers and these examples would be helpful for us.  Thanks.

Gretchen Brewer
Bureau of Waste Prevention
Planning & Evaluation
MassDEP
One Winter St, 8 fl
Boston, MA  02108
617-654-6594

[Helen Spiegelman]

This is a very provocative question, and important.

The quandary, I think, is that haulers themselves have no economic incentive to recycle. Absent incentives, voluntary agreements seem like pushing a noodle. Requirements to "educate" will be hard to enforce. What are the performance standards to show they are complying ~ handing out a pamphlet? It seems common sense that if there is something in it for haulers, then they'll get customers to recycle. I think it has to go deeper than voluntary agreements and certification programs (the "certified" companies will lose business if they impose requirements on their customers that the competition doesn't).

My sense is that the right tool is the disposal ban. The haulers hate it, but so what. It is a simple and direct expression of society's values. If they can't adhere to it, they aren't part of society. Enforcing it on their customers is a cost of doing business.

Does any one disagree with this? On principle, I mean, rather than on the basis that "they won't like it".

H.

[Nancy Poh]

If it is difficult to get haulers and their customers to recycle more, get the kids to do it for the school. Hold a competition to award the school where students recycle the most.

Green waste such as cuttings can also be reduced if children are taught to propagate and encouraged to grow them in school. The school also save cost on buying greens if the cuttings are collected from the students' home. Another competition should encourage this.

http://greenbeings.netfirms.com/gardening.htm

Start teaching them when they are young and overtime recycling will be a natural thing to do in their adulthood.

Rgds
Nancy

<-----Original Message----->
>From: Brewer, Gretchen \(DEP\) [Gretche...@state.ma.us]
>Sent: 3/2/2007 2:17:23 AM
>To: gree...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Re: [GreenYes] Getting Haulers to Recycle More
>
>
>
>MassDEP is conducting a brief informal survey of states, counties and
>municipalities that regulate, permit, or have voluntary agreements with solid
>waste and recycling haulers aimed at getting haulers and their customers,
>especially commercial generators, to recycle more. What are the requirements or
>choices haulers have within these models relative to: outreach and education to
>customers on recycling requirements; providing incentives (such as rebates and
>revenue/profit sharing based on commodity sales); reporting to customers and/or
>agencies on amounts recycled, composted, or trashed; providing recycling
>services (such as parallel access); and any other thoughts. We are currently
>working on exploring the possibility of a voluntary certification program for
>haulers and these examples would be helpful for us. Thanks.
>Gretchen Brewer
>Bureau of Waste Prevention
>Planning & Evaluation
>MassDEP
>One Winter St, 8 fl
>Boston, MA 02108
>617-654-6594
>
>
>

Click for free info on criminal justice degrees and make $150K/ year

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[David Biddle]

Gretchen-

We’ve got mandatory recycling for the commercial sector here in Philly and also in the state. The law is not well-written for actual compliance (long story). There is some enforcement, but it’s spotty and folks tend to see non-compliance as a “cost of doing business.” Fines are typically low. The larger a business, the less likely the fines will have any impact. As a result, we only have about 20% compliance at best. Most of that is cardboard related, and that goes right to the “economic incentive” issue for haulers and their customers. There are also a lot of shenanigans going on out there with hauler separation claims. Markets are booming right and we’ve seen this before. As soon as they dip haulers will just start trashing what they currently recycle.

All that said, I often raise the question in public talks about enforcement vs. incentives. Obviously, you have the simple avoided cost incentive, but often I am able to show people huge savings and they still don’t implement programs. Abitibi-Consolidated, a newsprint manufacturer, has a great program for nonprofits where they pay directly for paper brought to their special containers (see: http://paperretriever.com/

We’re also working on something new called The Delaware Valley Workplace Recycling Challenge. This addresses two of the biggest problems I find out there with generators: 1) lack of top-down support; 2) lack of awareness about tonnages and recycling rates. Even in some of the best programs out there, all too often facility managers don’t know how much they’re recycling, how much trash they’re generating, or what the true cost of waste management is for their facility. Our challenge pushes executive support and for a small fee we provide program track services. We are able to provide more than just economics and simple metrics. We convert recycling tonnage into energy saved and greenhouse gases reduced. See our web site for more. http://www.gpcrc.com. Pay close attention to the Environmental Business Reporting Tool in the Resources section.

Finally, however, I have to say that all of this doesn’t get most people very excited. Although we’re plugging away. I’ve written a number of editorials for our local paper and have really pushed the Challenge at the hauler and business community and gotten few takers. So,  we’re going to be adding one more twist. We’ve pushed RecycleBank hard to come up with a commercial application of their Recycling Credit program and we’re offering to implement this for all employees in a building or institution once the facility achieves a 25% recycling rate. We have two test cases we’re starting on and will hopefully be expanding out from there after we have some results from these test cases.

One last item: when tipping fees are relatively high (ours are around $70/ton now) you can break the hauler community into two segments—those with disposal facilities and those without. The independent haulers tend to understand the economics of waste a lot more than those who make their biggest profits off of disposal. I would focus my efforts on the independents first. They won’t have most of the accounts and few big ones, but they will get with the program (whatever it is) much faster. Once they’re starting to make  some noise, then go meet with the “less than independents.” They’ll be much more likely to listen.

Good luck with everything. If you need more info or support, give us a call.
--
David Biddle, Executive Director
<http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
P.O. Box 4037
Philadelphia, PA 19118

215-247-3090 (desk)
215-432-8225 (cell)

<http://www.gpcrc.com>

Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable
businesses in communities across North America!
Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>

[Wolbert, Brad - DNR]

Gretchen -- Wisconsin has long had a requirement on its books that licensed waste haulers must comply with the statutory prohibitions on land disposal of items ranging from lead-acid batteries, waste oil, yard waste and major appliances (absolute bans) to newspaper, cardboard, magazines, office paper, tires, and bottles and cans (except for incidental amounts originating from a region with an effective recycling program).  Relevant statute is s. 287.07, Wis. Stats.:  http://www.legis.state.wi.us/statutes/Stat0287.pdf

 

In addition, Wisconsin recently instituted a rule requiring licensed waste haulers to notify their customers in writing at the time services begin, and at least once per year therafter, of the need to comply with state and local laws requiring all residential and commercial generators to recycle.  We have enforced this requirement in several instances where notification was not being made.  Haulers are also required by law to provide municipalities with weights of recyclable materials collected from that municipality, maintain the separation and cleanliness of collected recyclables, and produce documentation that collected recyclables have been delivered to brokers, processors or end users upon request by the Department.  Haulers are NOT required, currently, to "police" their customers by examining waste loads and enforcing the recycling rules on their clients.  (In general, they won't pick up a major appliance because they know the landfill will refuse disposal.  Unfortunately, the same can't be said about a load with a lot of cardboard or beverage containers.)

 

The hauler rules are at s. NR 502.06, Wisconsin Administrative Code:  http://www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/code/nr/nr502.pdf

 

Brad Wolbert - Hydrogeologist

Wisconsin DNR

At 10:17 AM 3/1/2007, Brewer, Gretchen (DEP) wrote:

[Christi...@alexandriava.gov]

Interestingly enough we just had a meeting on this topic in Northern Virginia today - specific to multifamily recycling. We had four of the big haulers in the area on a panel. In short, they are reluctant to do anything other than to provide the collection services. A least one seems to be making an effort to provide outreach education information to their customers...but then it just goes to the property managers and then perhaps no further.

However, our new mandatory commercial recycling program requires haulers to provide their commercial customers with information that essentially will help calculate their recycling rate. To some extent I'm letting the haulers off the hook because we will have a calculator built into our reporting system that will kick out an estimate, but at least it makes the haulers more beholden to providing us more accurate data for the aggregate waste vs. recycling numbers they need to provide each year AND it provides a feedback loop to their customers in terms of how much (or how little) they are recycling.

If anyone would like to talk to me about this in more detail, I would be happy to share info. Let's face it, there is no real incentive for haulers to recycle more...so they aren't going to go out of their way to help educate folks except in the most cursory of ways.

Christine McCoy
Solid Waste Planner
City of Alexandria

[Nancy Poh]

If the haulers cannot get their customers to recycle, a good way to get around it is through the church or any non profit organization as they are always looking for ways to raise funds. Eg, if a religious body is able to encourage their members to collect and bring recyclable waste at least once a month for the purpose of raising fund there should be some responses. The haulers can be there to collect the recyclable waste and pass out educational material on recycling.

This is how members of the following religious body is raising fund in our neighbourhood. They get a good deal from a recycling firm and volunteer to sort recyclable waste delivered by residents to a designated park in the neighbourhood every 3rd Sunday of the month.

http://www.tzuchi.org/global/

Rgds
Nancy
http://greenbeings.netfirms.com

<-----Original Message----->
>From: Wolbert, Brad - DNR [Brad.W...@Wisconsin.gov]
>Sent: 3/3/2007 1:20:48 AM
>To: gree...@googlegroups.com
>Cc: Cynthi...@wisconsin.gov;Cynthi...@wisconsin.gov
>Subject: Re: [GreenYes] Re: Getting Haulers to Recycle More
>
>Gretchen -- Wisconsin has long had a requirement on its books that licensed
>waste haulers must comply with the statutory prohibitions on land disposal of
>items ranging from lead-acid batteries, waste oil, yard waste and major
>appliances (absolute bans) to newspaper, cardboard, magazines, office paper,
>tires, and bottles and cans (except for incidental amounts originating from a
>region with an effective recycling program). Relevant statute is s. 287.07,

>Wis. Stats.: http://www.legis..state.wi.us/statutes/Stat0287.pdf

>
>In addition, Wisconsin recently instituted a rule requiring licensed waste
>haulers to notify their customers in writing at the time services begin, and at
>least once per year therafter, of the need to comply with state and local laws
>requiring all residential and commercial generators to recycle. We have
>enforced this requirement in several instances where notification was not being
>made. Haulers are also required by law to provide municipalities with weights
>of recyclable materials collected from that municipality, maintain the
>separation and cleanliness of collected recyclables, and produce documentation
>that collected recyclables have been delivered to brokers, processors or end
>users upon request by the Department. Haulers are NOT required, currently, to
>"police" their customers by examining waste loads and enforcing the recycling
>rules on their clients. (In general, they won't pick up a major appliance
>because they know the landfill will refuse disposal. Unfortunately, the same
>can't be said about a load with a lot of cardboard or beverage containers.)
>
>The hauler rules are at s. NR 502.06, Wisconsin Administrative Code:

>http://www.legis..state.wi.us/rsb/code/nr/nr502.pdf

>
>Brad Wolbert - Hydrogeologist
>Wisconsin DNR
>
>
>At 10:17 AM 3/1/2007, Brewer, Gretchen (DEP) wrote:
>
>
>MassDEP is conducting a brief informal survey of states, counties and
>municipalities that regulate, permit, or have voluntary agreements with solid
>waste and recycling haulers aimed at getting haulers and their customers,
>especially commercial generators, to recycle more. What are the requirements or
>choices haulers have within these models relative to: outreach and education to
>customers on recycling requirements; providing incentives (such as rebates and
>revenue/profit sharing based on commodity sales); reporting to customers and/or
>agencies on amounts recycled, composted, or trashed; providing recycling
>services (such as parallel access); and any other thoughts. We are currently
>working on exploring the possibility of a voluntary certification program for
>haulers and these examples would be helpful for us. Thanks.
>
>Gretchen Brewer
>Bureau of Waste Prevention
>Planning & Evaluation
>MassDEP
>One Winter St, 8 fl
>Boston, MA 02108
>617-654-6594
>
>
>
>

Click for free info on accredited degrees with 150K/ year potential

[Waitman Gobble]

Hi,

It seems like we are making it more difficult to dispose of trash, yet
we are enticed into consuming more. It's accelerated at both ends. The
more complicated trash removal becomes, the more likely people will
simply open their windows and dump out the trash. I've seen this
happen, really, as I was the first person in my family born outside of
West Virginia.

It is interesting to now have a recycle can three times larger than
the trash can, and I'm sure some people out there are applauding
someone over that move. But I'll tell you that it's really just like
several band-aids covering a dangerous cancer. The truth is that it
doesn't really matter what goes in the blue can and what goes in the
black can - as nobody is checking them, and even then the contents of
both cans end up in the same spot. I've spent a lot of time hanging
out at the transfer station just to see what happens. Everything,
everything ends up in a pile.

I think the problems we are encountering (on Earth) have more to do
with sex than anything else. Trash and Global Warming, there is
absolutely no solution as long as we continue to reproduce as we have
been. And of course it's been going on. From the first US census,
about two hundred years ago (1790), it took fifty years to make one
million humans in this country, and now we are over three hundred
million - and growing at about fifteen million per year. And of course
our reproduction is accelerating.

And in this country there is a large amount of recreational sex - in
other countries the sex is much more business-like with the aim at
reproducing.

I'm really, really worried about one thousand years from now, if we
make it that far. We could end up billions of naked humans all packed
together, millimeters apart, releasing plumes of methane like the
cattle along interstate 5 in California.

The Earth has supposedly been here for millions of years, yet our
Christian calendar is only a couple of thousand of years, and the
Epoch "new age" calendar much less, and of course that calendar is
only ever measured in seconds..... We've only been electrified for
about a hundred years, and that's when doom started to matter. Think
about it. The one human that has had the most positive effect on
civilization - ever - Mr. Edison - has also caused the most startling
negative effect on mankind. We can now all talk to one another,
without touching or seeing.

But I think the bottom line is that all these things we collect and
organize into various things, our consumables - they are all made of
elements that have always been here, we are all made of things that
did not merely appear out of the ether, we were always here in some
form. We're all about collecting, organizing and converting. Even if
we decide to gas ourselves with methane, or commit mass suicide,
killing en masse, as we are consciously heading toward - the Earth
will still be the same old bits and pieces it ever was.

Take care,

Waitman Gobble

On Mar 1, 10:17 am, "Brewer, Gretchen \(DEP\)"

[Mike Morin]

The Capitalist Econometric Growth  Model  judges their success by the amount of trash that they generate.

 

 

Workin' for peace and cooperation,

 

Mike Morin 

[David Biddle]

Many large chains fight like crazy to keep their cardboard recycling data secret, or at least confidential, because they feel it is a direct indicator of how well (or not well) their stores are doing and they don’t want their competition to know. A number of companies even keep baled cardboard inside until the time of pickup and it’s often under cover of darkness.

Db

--
David Biddle, Executive Director
<http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
P.O. Box 4037
Philadelphia, PA 19118

215-247-3090 (desk)
215-432-8225 (cell)

<http://www.gpcrc.com>

Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable
businesses in communities across North America!
Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>

Click for free info on accredited degrees with 150K/ year  potential <http://tagline.bidsystem.com/fc/CAaCDCZzfj8wdieMKCvQVkmJ0xHYVZfM/>

[kinsey1]

David

 

The reason in trying to keep their sales a secret is a concern to most retailers, using it to not recycle is ludicrous

 

I once had a sales rep for a hauler bet me that he could tell me the weekly sales of our stores within a few thousand dollars. I picked 10 randomly and  in 8 out of 10 stores he was right on. I used an average sales per tonne of waste generated figure that unfortunately did not deviate over the years and was accurate to within a few tonnes per year as to waste\recycling generated.

 

The fact that retailers even believe that there information regarding their performance both good and bad is secret is ridiculous. There are many ways, all legal, that you can ascertain the sales performance of any given retail outlet. The most common and effective one is to simply walk into the store and ask. It is amazing how much information employees will share if you just ask them

 

My former employer has shared their recycling  recovery information for years and despite exposure of this secret information continues to be one of the most successful food retailers in the province of British Columbia

 

Dennis Kinsey
President
Common Ground Solutions Ltd
www.cgsltd.com
kin...@shaw.ca
604-970-4407
fax-604-462-8663

 

 

----- Original Message -----