SCS Engineers

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 27, 2016

It’s not just that we like wine and happen to live and work in every wine producing region of the U.S.; SCS Engineers understands the need for clean water resources and how important they are to the wine industry and for agriculture in general. SCS helps wineries face an array of environmental and regulatory challenges including:

• Energy and natural resources conservation programs. These programs include protecting habitats and species.
• Water Quality – Stormwater, Wastewater, Groundwater, Well-water and Surface Water;
• Air Quality – Winery Fermentation and Aging Emissions, including VOCs, Stationary-Traditional Combustion Sources, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions;
• Environmental Due Diligence -All Appropriate Inquiries, Phase I’s/Phase II’s, Environmental Compliance Reviews and Audits, Vapor Encroachment and Vapor Intrusion Studies
• Hazardous Materials – For example in California, the California Unified Program Agency Requirements including Hazardous Materials Business Plans (HMBPs), Spill Control and Countermeasure Plans (SPCCs), and Hazardous Materials Inventories;
• Sustainable Materials -Recycling, Reuse, and Repurposing of Materials;
• Waste: Organic, Solid, Hazardous and other Wastes;
• Geographic Information Services (GIS) -Spatial Databases; GPS Inventories, plots, varietal blocks and soils maps, vineyard development; and
• Occupational Safety and Health – Facility Health and Safety Plans, Safety and OSHA Compliance Audits, Injury and Illness Prevention Programs.

SCS is pleased to announce we are the newest member of WIN, the Wine Industry Network.

SCS Engineers offers sustainable environmental solutions to businesses with environmental challenges. SCS provides these services to private and public sector clients through a network of nationwide offices. For more information about SCS, please visit our website at www.scsengineers.com, or contact us at .

June 24, 2016

SCS Engineers has published two Technical Bulletins summarizing the O&G NSPS final rule and outlining the new LDAR requirements. The two Bulletins explain the modification of how oil and gas sources will be permitted under the Clean Air Act and the new requirements to reduce methane leaks from new oil and gas facilities consistent with the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards.

Reference the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) new source performance standards for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production, Transmission and Distribution (O&G NSPS), which includes amendments to 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart OOOO and a new Subpart OOOOa. Subpart OOOOa will apply to facilities constructed, modified or reconstructed after September 18, 2015.

Click to read or share the Technical Bulletins:

Summary of Final Oil and Gas NSPS Rule

LDAR Requirements in the Final Oil and Gas NSPS Rule

For copy of the rule and related documents:

https://www.epa.gov/controlling-air-pollution-oil-and-natural-gas-industry

For more information contact:

Pat Sullivan, REPA, CPP, BCES

(916) 361-1297

Lucas Marsalek

(805) 346-6591

(800) 767-4727

June 9, 2016

On June 1, 2016, the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) provide comments on Pipeline Safety: Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines (FR20722) proposed rules to Mr. Mike Israni, Deputy Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety – Field Operations at U.S. Department of Transportation. Comments by the three not-for-profits were made on behalf of the solid waste industry including companies, municipalities, and professionals.

The letter reflected the solid waste industry support for the efforts made by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to ensure pipeline safety and included comments on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, (ANPRM) as follows:

The revised definition for gathering line (onshore) as the basis for determining the beginning and endpoints of each gathering line requires further clarification. The definition remains too broad for applications that do not have the same level of risks since they are not accessible to the public.

PHMSA has elected not to propose rulemaking for landfill gas systems. However, it notes that pipelines that transport landfill gas away from the landfill to another facility are transporting gas and that PHMSA may consider this in the future.

The associations pointed out that the same rulemaking for landfill gas systems should apply to all forms of biogas that are collected and managed in a similar manner to landfill gas. Also noted was that low-pressure gas lines delivering biogas off-site to a dedicated end user need not be considered for further regulation as they do not present the same level of risk that natural gas or other high-pressure gas lines do. Landfill gas/biogas systems fall under federal, state and local regulators. Because landfill gas/biogas systems are regularly inspected for safety, generally use plastic piping, and do not present a substantial risk to the public the Associations feel that it is not necessary to consider additional regulation.

Contact NWRA, SWANA, RNG Coalition or SCS Engineers for more information.

June 8, 2016

Question: I have a small oxidation event at my landfill and am continually testing for carbon monoxide (CO) in the surrounding landfill gas (LFG) extraction wells. Using colorimetric tubes, I am monitoring the readings which range from 5-10 parts per million (ppm). Is there an accepted standard for background carbon monoxide in LFG? Moreover, how much inaccuracy is expected using the colorimetric tube testing?

Answer: Carbon monoxide (CO) can be found in small quantities even when there is no landfill fire. If your concern is landfill fire, most reputable resources state that a landfill fire generates readings of at least 100 ppm CO and more typically in the 500-1000 ppm range with 1000 ppm a reliable indicator that a landfill fire event may be present.

CO readings on colorimetric tubes are inherently less accurate and tend to run higher than laboratory results. Colorimetric tubes do provide value as a real-time indicator versus subsequent lab results, and can be used as an index reading, calibrated by lab results later. If you’ve had a landfill fire event before, with CO levels greater than 100 ppm, the lab confirmed 5-10 ppm CO could be residual left over from the earlier event.

Although some people believe that the presence of CO at almost any level is an indicator of landfill fire, recent laboratory tests show that CO can be generated at values up to and over 1000 ppm by elevating refuse temperatures without the presence of combustion (fire). Other tests have shown that high values of CO are found in some landfills with no current landfill fire and no indication of a past landfill fire. This information supports that it is possible that Elevated Temperature (ET) Landfills can have CO levels over 1000 ppm CO without the presence of combustion or landfill fire.

In the end, CO can be an indicator of landfill fire, but not always, as described here. Low methane, high carbon dioxide, and even landfill temperatures above 131 degrees F may or may not be indicators of past or current landfill fire. Physical indicators of a landfill fire may include rapid settlement in a localized area, cracks and fissures, smoke and flame, melted landfill gas system components, and char on the inside of LFG headers and blower/flare station components such as a flame arrester. However, most of these indicators can occur at ET landfills as well without the presence of fire or combustion.

A professional landfill gas engineer is needed to assess these conditions as a whole, and make a judgment on the underlying driver, condition, and resolution.

Have a question for our SCS Professional Engineers or Field Staff? Just ask here.

Landfill and Landfill Gas Services at SCS Engineers.

June 7, 2016

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently proposed increases in renewable fuel volume requirements across all types of biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. The proposed increases would boost renewable fuel production and provide for ambitious yet achievable growth.

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set annual RFS volume requirements for four categories of biofuels: cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel. EPA implements the program in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy.

EPA will hold a public hearing on this proposal on June 9, 2016, in Kansas City, Missouri. The period for public input and comment will be open through July 11, 2016.

For more information on the proposal, see www.epa.gov/renewable-fuel-standard-program/proposed-renewable-fuel-standards-2017-and-biomass-based-diesel.

For more information on the public hearing, see www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-05-25/pdf/2016-12358.pdf.

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 18, 2016

East Alton Defense Area Rehabilitation Project Receives Illinois Governor’s Affordable Housing Champion Award. SCS Engineers provides environmental services that help move redevelopment project forward. – Congratulations RISE!

Mark Stroker, Director of Real Estate Development, RISE St. Louis, informed the SCS Engineers team about the honor, saying he felt “a great deal of pride and appreciation that Emerald Ridge was selected by IHDA [Illinois Housing Development Authority] as the Champion’s Award winner for excellence in affordable housing development for 2016.”

Mr. Stroker went on to tell the SCS team that, “It is an extraordinary honor and represents a long and collaborative effort… This was a tough project and wouldn’t have been possible without all of your help.” He attended the Illinois Governor’s Conference in late March 2016, where he accepted the award and discussed the project with conference attendees.

In his notification to Mr. Stroker about the award, Benjamin Fenton, IHDA’s Housing Coordination Services Manager, explained that three nominees are chosen for this award every year for distinguished developments, initiatives, or programs in affordable housing. The nominees stand out for their commitment to serving the Annual Comprehensive Housing Plan focus areas and one or more of the State’s Priority Populations, and for having positive impacts on the community in which they are located.

Before it was redeveloped, The Emerald Ridge Development was known as the “Defense Area,” and it consisted of 18 one- and two-story multi-family buildings containing approximately 80 apartments. The Defense Area was built by the Federal government as temporary housing in the early 1940’s to accommodate workers at the nearby Olin ammunition plant during the war effort. After the war, these barracks-style buildings were not dismantled as originally planned but were sold off to private owners. Over the years, they were re-sold multiple times, and the condition of most of the buildings became more and more deteriorated, in addition to being constructed with asbestos-containing materials and lead-based paints.
Residents were temporarily relocated, and the old buildings were demolished and replaced with 46 newly constructed, high-efficiency single-family homes. The residents who lived in the area when the redevelopment project commenced were given the opportunity to rent homes in the new development, and some accepted. The rechristened Emerald Ridge Development is located in the Village of East Alton, Illinois, and the new single-family homes are affordable to families earning 60% of the Area Median Income, which includes nearly two-thirds of the residents of East Alton.

Services that SCS Engineers provided at the site included lead and asbestos abatement sampling and specifications, asbestos abatement management, subsurface investigation for a Phase II ESA, NESHAP demolition inspections, and two Phase I ESAs to assess the property for potential environmental impairments, to satisfy IHDA requirements, and to satisfy the CERCLA requirements to qualify for landowner liability protection.

Stephanie Hill, SCS Project Director, said: “I am honored to be part of the RISE team that brought so much value to the community.” Ms. Hill offered special thanks to Randy Homburg, SCS Geologist and Project Manager, for his work on this redevelopment project, and to the other SCS team members who performed the environmental site assessments.