Industry News

Mergers & Acquisitions

WM acquires Minnesota organics recycling company

Houston-based WM has acquired the assets of Minnestrista, Minnesota-based Specialized Environmental Technologies (SET), including an organics composting company with sites located throughout the Twin Cities metro area. SET’s assets include compost sites in the Minnesota cities of Shakopee, Minnestrista, Burnsville and Empire; a transfer station in Empire; and The Mulch Store in Burnsville.

SET was established in 2000 and has pioneered organic waste solutions in the Twin Cities.

WM has offered organics collection to businesses and residents for several years.

“The 75-percent recycling goal in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, along with city and county ordinances requiring organics collection and our customers’ interest in organics services were key considerations in our decision to purchase SET,” says Julie Ketchum, area public affairs manager for Houston-based WM.

“This acquisition will allow us to internalize the volume that we collect and continue to provide compost capacity to third-party collectors. SET is a great fit that will expand our service offerings to our customers, help our customers meet their sustainability goals and allow the WM Upper Midwest area to strategically grow its business,” she says. “With this acquisition, we welcome 31 new team members to WM, and we are very excited to have them join our company.”

SET processes more than 80,000 tons of yard waste, brush and biomass annually. The materials are turned into various mulch products and soil amendments and sold to organic farms, horticultural centers and other industries in the Midwest. The firm also sells various landscaping products from The Mulch Store.

Legislation & Regulations

NWRA expresses concerns about Connecticut EPR bill

Lew Dubuque, vice president of chapter management for the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Arlington, Virginia, testified remotely before the Connecticut General Assembly Joint Environment Committee Feb. 27 in opposition to H.B. 6664, legislation that would implement extended producer responsibility (EPR) in Connecticut.

“The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) continues to promote EPR as the solution to the state’s ‘self-sufficiency crisis,’” Dubuque said. “This is another ill-advised attempt at legislating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. ... An EPR regime in Connecticut is not likely to achieve the goals that are expected.”

Dubuque also expressed the chapter’s opposition to other provisions in the legislation, including the creation of solid waste regional authorities overseen by DEEP that would provide DEEP with extraordinary power and control over any new waste management infrastructure through proposed requests for proposal. DEEP is not a developer but a regulator, he said, therefore this would create a conflict of interest and amounts to a “power grab” implemented by DEEP through potential long-term contracts.

Section 5 of the proposed legislation would mandate statewide separation of organics. While he said the NWRA agrees diverting organics should be considered, it opposes the mandate because Connecticut has 169 towns with unique conditions and demographics that don’t always allow source separation to be used.

Section 8 of the legislation proposes a $5 per ton fee on all waste destined for landfills and raises the fee on waste received at a waste-to-energy facility to $3 per ton, which Dubuque said will act as another tax on residents.

Safety

SWANA reports worker fatality increase in 2022

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, reports an increase in worker fatalities in the U.S. and Canada in 2022 after a drop in 2021. For 2022, SWANA recorded 46 solid waste industry worker fatalities compared with 28 the year before.

“SWANA is disappointed by the nearly 65 percent increase in worker fatalities experienced in the industry last year,” says David Biderman, who was SWANA executive director when the report was released. “The 2022 data is a reminder that we need to make sure that safety is a core value across all lines of business, in collection, postcollection and maintenance, and at small and large companies and agencies in both the public and private sectors.”

According to data SWANA provided, public sector workers represented a large percentage of fatalities in 2022 compared with previous years. About 35 percent of all solid waste workers killed last year worked in the public sector. SWANA says the average was around 21 percent over the past four years.

Collection jobs remained the leading occupation experiencing fatal incidents, according to SWANA. The most common cause of collection worker fatalities was employees falling off trucks or being struck by trucks. Being struck by a third-party vehicle remains the third-leading cause of death for collection workers, followed by crashes with other vehicles.

Postcollection and maintenance workers saw a large increase in fatalities in 2022, representing the bulk of the rise in worker deaths from 2021, according to SWANA. Fatal incidents at material recovery facilities (MRFs) jumped from one in 2021 to seven in 2022. Fatalities at landfills \increased from five to eight in 2022.

Maintenance also contributed to the rise in worker fatalities last year, with four employees killed while working on trucks. Three of these incidents involved working on or around hydraulics.

The association says mechanical-related fatalities led the list of post-collection fatalities for the first time since SWANA has tracked the data. In addition to truck maintenance, work on and around shredders, balers, compactors and other equipment led to 11 worker deaths in 2022. Single-vehicle crashes were again the second-leading cause of fatal incidents.

Looking at worker fatalities month by month, overall trends show spikes in the spring and summer followed by a decrease in fatalities through the end of the year. SWANA says the 2022 data are unusual because fatalities dipped in June. The previous three years saw a drop in May, followed by a spike in fatal incidents in June. However, a spike occurred later in August.

In addition to worker fatalities, SWANA tracks events in which a member of the public was killed in a related incident. After several years of increases, pedestrian fatalities are down compared with 2021 but still higher than in earlier years. Fatal incidents involving bicyclists jumped significantly in 2022 compared with 2021, when only one such incident was recorded, according to data provided by SWANA.

Texas, California and New York remain on the list of the top five states with the most fatalities in 2022. Florida and Pennsylvania join the list, replacing Ohio and Georgia from 2021. SWANA says these states represent more than 40 percent of all fatalities in 2022.

Three fatalities occurred in Canada in the last year—one in Ontario and two in British Columbia.

SWANA says the first goal in its “Strategic Plan: Forward, Together” is getting collection workers off the list of the top 10 occupations for workplace fatalities. In 2022, collection worker fatalities increased from 22 to 25. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent report for 2021, collection workers are seventh on that list, an improvement compared with previous years.

The association says it will develop new safety resources and partner with governmental entities and others to improve worker safety. SWANA hosted a town hall March 23 to discuss these activities.