Using non-ad valorem assessments in solid waste management are based on the improvement or service cost allocated to a property and are levied on a benefit unit basis, rather than on value. Under the special assessment system, there is less incentive to drop out of program participation even if solid waste costs increase.
The best source of data for compiling the assessment roll is the records of the county or city official responsible for property appraisal and valuation. Limitations may exist with the data because these records are maintained for the purpose of determining property valuations, not for performing solid waste or other non-ad valorem assessments. However, additional information such as benefits rendered, occupancy, and frequency of benefits could be developed in order to convert the initial records into a complete and accurate assessment role.
Click here to read this insightful article by Marc Rogoff and Laurel Urena of SCS Engineers.
In the EPA’s Region 9 U.S.-Mexico Border Program Progress Report, April-September 2016
The Campo Band of Mission Indians (CBMI) staff members are working with the EPA and SCS Engineers to address their waste management needs. SCS Engineers, an environmental engineering firm, was contracted by the Border Environment Cooperation Commission to work with CBMI in response to their request for technical assistance.
SCS Engineers was contracted to prepare a waste characterization study to support the development of a zero waste plan. The study provides critical information for designing and developing the future programs, policies, and facilities to effectively achieve a zero waste program.
Based on the findings, CBMI will assess their infrastructure needs, including consideration of a transfer station. SCS Engineers conducted field sampling to assess the Golden Acorn Casino in September 2016, the same month that Jeff Scott, EPA’s Land Divison Director visited Campo.
The Border 2020 Program is the latest environmental program implemented under the 1983 La Paz Agreement. It builds on the Border 2012 Environmental Program, emphasizing regional, bottom-up approaches for decision making, priority setting, and project implementation to address the environmental and public health problems in the border region. As in Border 2012, the new Program encourages meaningful participation from communities and local stakeholders.
Caroline Larose was awarded the Robert P. Stearns – SCS Engineers Master’s Scholar this year. Her project, “Material Flows: Strategies to Reduce Ann Arbor’s Municipal Solid Waste and Improve Diversion,” consists of a comprehensive benchmarking analysis of urban waste programs and a review of city stakeholders to distill a set of MSW management, education, and awareness best practices. Following her research, Caroline plans to draft recommendations for the City, which will include updated MSW goals and an action plan to improve diversion and reduce waste creation.
About Caroline Larose
Caroline chose to go back to school to further her pursuit of making cities more sustainable. She identified solid waste as her primary research focus and has worked towards her idea of eliminating waste as a concept. Caroline is now in her third year as a dual MBA/MS student at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.
Caroline works to promote waste reduction and diversion on campus and throughout the Ann Arbor community by advising the implementation of campus-wide composting and uniform bin signage, as well as by organizing events such as the first Ross School of Business Waste Audit & Education Day and annual clothing swaps. Caroline, a member of the University-wide Student Sustainability Initiative board, has served as the VP of Sustainability for the Ross Net Impact chapter for 2-years. As a result of her leadership on campus, Caroline was selected to join the Ann Arbor Resource Management Team, advising the City of Ann Arbor on how to reduce its solid waste and improve diversion.
Getting a firm handle on a solid waste operation and expenses is a challenge for any solid waste agency manager or landfill operator. It is particularly imperative in this era of “lean and mean” budgets and looming regulatory policy. Doing more with less is the watchword for most operations across the country still reeling from the financial impacts of the Great Recession.
SCS Engineers has created a package of articles to help you identify if your landfill, landfill gas, or solid waste operation is ready for 2017. We hope this useful guidance will help you plan for the upcoming year. SCS professionals are always available to answer questions and provide advice. Find the office or SCS professional nearest to you by clicking on one the links here: Offices and Professionals.
Download, print or share this package by using the download button under the articles or by using the navigation at left. The package includes the following information written by SCS National Experts:
Read the full article by Marc Rogoff, SCS Engineers.
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
“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
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:
Read and share the SCS Technical Bulletin here.
SCS Coal Combustion Residual Services
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
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.
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