SCS Engineers is a Silver Sponsor of the Wisconsin Integrated Resource Management Conference (WIRMC), February 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency in Green Bay.
The conference will feature numerous networking opportunities, exhibitors, field trips, and several tracks exploring the latest solid waste management trends and practices.
The following SCS professionals are presenting at the conference:
Abstract: Solid waste organizations are looking to hire, and the waste business doesn’t have the glamor some other companies can offer. With a tight talent pool available, organizations with good onboarding programs can help attract good talent by highlighting the organization’s culture, reduce the time for a new employee to become a productive employee, boost employee engagement and help build a stronger company culture. We don’t often talk about topics like this, but building and maintaining a strong work force in our field is important. So let’s start talking about it!
Abstract: Ramsey and Washington Counties recognize that there is often value to the items that people put in the trash. R&E sees the waste stream as a resource stream. This resulted in the 2016 purchase of the Recycling & Energy Center (R&E Center), located in Newport, Minnesota. All trash generated by individuals and businesses in the two counties is delivered to the R&E Center, where R&E works to recover value. The R&E Center is permitted to process 500,000 tons of trash per year. Trash is processed to recover recyclable metals and make fuel for producing electricity. In 2019, nearly 90% of the waste from the two counties was diverted from landfill because of the processing that occurs at the R&E Center. After researching and evaluating options to recover recyclables in the trash, R&E has targeted residential food scraps and remaining recyclables in trash as the next resources to recover from the mixed waste stream. The R&E Center is adding equipment to recover residential organics placed in durable compostable bags that are comingled with trash. Additional equipment upgrades will recover high-value recyclables such as metals, plastics and cardboard. Research is also under way to partner with private industry to utilize anaerobic digestion to recover value from the organics recovered at the R&E Center. We’ll discuss the research and reconnaissance as well as the design and installation of these systems and touch on the technologies that are being considered for recovering additional value from the byproducts.
The Wisconsin Integrated Resource Management Conference is the #1 place to market your business to Wisconsin solid waste and recycling professionals at the Exhibit Hall.
The Wisconsin Integrated Resource Management Conference is jointly hosted by the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin (AROW), the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) – Badger Chapter, the Wisconsin Counties Solid Waste Managers Association (WCSWMA) since 2000, and Recycling Connections, allowing professionals from all aspects of the solid waste & recycling industry to collaborate and learn from one another.
Click for more conference details and registration information
Achieving Florida’s 75% Recycling Goal presents unique challenges and opportunities for policymakers and professional staff. Across the country, local governments who had become accustomed to receiving operational cost offsets from their recyclable materials are now paying higher fees to continue their recycling programs. Renewable News covers how Leon County and the city of Tallahassee are managing both through their partnership.
They are uncovering opportunities to improve upon current operations, including but not limited to potential changes to facilities, infrastructure, programs, and partnerships. New opportunities are helping both develop long-term policy strategies and recommendations to continue a financially viable recycling program and meet goals.
Read and share the article here.
These kids are among the more than 1,200 students and their families who took the pledge to recycle right at the 10th Annual Earth Day Event celebration hosted by Waste Management at Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park. SCS Engineers professionals contributed their support and know-how to celebrate and educate at the environmental event.
For the past decade, the event has offered students hands-on recycling, renewable energy and environmental-related activities. One of the most popular activities at the anniversary celebration was a wind machine in which students hilariously tried to catch swirling “hurricane debris.” The most recent storm, Hurricane Irma, added 660,000 tons of debris into the landfill in just four months. Experts explained other inner workings of the Renewable Energy Park such as how landfill gas becomes electricity and “clean” renewable energy.
The day’s activities included stations where students target what can’t be recycled in a bow and suction cup arrow game; don WM vests and hardhats beside the CNG truck which reduces greenhouse gas emissions, make a landfill out of candy before taking a bus tour of the real landfill and use recycled materials to make art with Young at Art and musical instruments with the South Florida Junior Chamber Ensemble.
Proving that being good to the environment is a winning strategy, Miami Dolphins’ former wide receiver O.J. McDuffie and former cornerback Patrick Surtain were on hand to sign autographs and take photos, many of which were shared on social media at #greenbroward, a local initiative in Broward County by Waste Management designed to engage and educate the community on sustainability efforts.
As part of the Earth Day festivities, Waste Management also awarded funds to all participating schools. The Dumpster Art Contest featured the handiwork of 14 schools that all took home gift cards to Michaels for future art projects.
The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) recently nominated and confirmed Robert Gardner as the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Trustee to the Board. His term began January 1, 2019, and extends until December 31, 2021.
Mr. Gardner is a Senior Vice President of SCS Engineers and leads SCS’s solid waste management practice, including landfill engineering, landfill gas management, solid waste studies, landfill environmental systems, liquids management, operation and maintenance, and construction.
Mr. Gardner is also SCS’s National Expert on Solid Waste Collection and Routing, supporting municipalities and businesses nationwide to continue or expand their sustainable recycling-reuse programs despite international export restrictions and market fluctuation.
AAEES, a not-for-profit organization serves to protect public health and the environment by recognizing leadership and excellence through accredited Board Certification of Environmental Engineers and Scientists and with professional development opportunities. Mr. Gardner’s expertise supports multiple programs in the solid waste management industry, which have a profound positive impact on the environment, climate change, and human health.
Mr. Gardner is a Professional Engineer in thirteen states and Puerto Rico. He is an AAEES Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE) in Solid Waste Management. In addition to serving the AAEES, Gardner is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Solid Waste Association of North America, National Society of Professional Engineers, National Waste and Recycling Association, and the Environmental Education and Research Foundation.
