Industry News

Facilities

Waste Eliminator opens new Atlanta MRF

The waste services company Waste Eliminator, based in Atlanta, has opened a new material recovery facility (MRF) in the city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia.

The new MRF replaces an older facility, increasing the company’s waste diversion from landfills and promoting additional reuse and recycling opportunities. With the opening of the new facility, Waste Eliminator says it will increase its throughput capacity by 25 percent.

“As the leading provider of sustainable waste solutions in the Atlanta market, Waste Eliminator is proud to partner with our corporate clients as they move towards a circular economy model,” Waste Eliminator CEO Kacy Cronan says. “This new facility embodies the long-term vision of Waste Eliminator and will be a cornerstone for Atlanta’s sustainable vision ahead.

“As a result of our investment and commitment, this facility is projected to divert more than 70 percent of the processed waste that otherwise would be disposed of annually at local landfills,” Cronan continues. “Additionally, we plan to convert our legacy facility to process source-separated recyclables, furthering the company’s ability to divert any and all types of waste streams for our customers.”

Waste Eliminator says the development was made possible via capital support from its majority stakeholder, Houston-based Allied Industrial Partners, which acquired the waste firm in November 2021.

“Allied Industrial Partners is proud to invest and advance sustainability in the waste industry and believes this asset will be a game-changing investment for the Atlanta metro area,” says Bradford Rossi and Philip Wright, co-founders and managing partners for Allied. “This investment only showcases the beginning for Waste Eliminator and its plans to grow its sustainable footprint across the Southeast.”

Waste Eliminator plans to “significantly expand” its composting operation this year and open its first municipal solid waste MRF in the Atlanta market. Both facilities will have a material impact on the company’s ability to create beneficial reuse options for waste streams that often end up in landfills, the company says.

In a news release announcing the MRF, Waste Eliminator says the new facilities, in addition to expanding existing business lines, illustrate its “commitment to sustainable solutions and continued growth and progress into the new year and beyond.”

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Legislation & Regulations

New Hampshire bill would limit out-of-state trash

New Hampshire lawmakers have proposed new legislation that would prevent trucks from bringing waste from beyond state borders, according to the Concord Monitor.

One bill would prohibit new landfills from having private ownership, giving the state authority to restrict the types of waste accepted, while a second would limit the out-of-state trash a landfill can accept. While private entities still would be permitted to operate landfills, ownership rights for new landfills would be reserved for the state, county, town or city.

The proposed regulation would not affect existing privately owned landfills, including the Turnkey Landfill, owned by WM, in Rochester and the North Country Environmental Services Land- fill, owned by Casella Waste Sytems, in Bethlehem.

The bills follow the establishment of a committee to study how much waste is arriving in New Hampshire from other states. The study committee recommended placing a moratorium on the construction of new landfills until the state has improved its current 10-year solid waste management plan.

Almost half of New Hampshire’s trash comes from out-of-state, according to the Monitor, with 900,000 tons dumped in commercial landfills in 2020. The bills addressing out-of-state trash are reported to have bipartisan support in the New Hampshire legislature.

“People don’t want New Hampshire to be the dumping ground of New England,” Rep. David Rochefort told the Concord Monitor. “It benefits a few corporations. But aside from that, it actually is a detriment to more people than it is a benefit.”

Rochefort says he plans to introduce legislation to cap out-of-state trash accepted by landfills at 15 percent.

The text of New Hampshire House Bill 1145 can be viewed at https://legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1145/2024.

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Organics

Staten Island Compost Facility undergoes expansion

Ahead of New York’s curbside composting program rollout, the New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Staten Island Compost Facility has undergone an expansion that DSNY says will increase the facility’s capacity by nearly 2,000 percent.

The expansion includes new equipment, known as an aerated static pile (ASP), which exposes all sides of precompost material piles to air and moisture to speed up the composting process without the need for daily turning and repositioning.

“Over the last decade, the department of sanitation has produced hundreds of millions of pounds of finished compost here on Staten Island, which, today, is in parks, gardens and yards in every corner of the city,” DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch says.

“The goal of New York City’s curbside composting program—the largest, easiest ever—is to create beneficial use for material that used to do nothing except feed rats and produce methane. As service reaches all New Yorkers this year, this new expansion means more food waste turned into usable compost,” she adds.

Previously, food waste brought to the Staten Island Compost Facility was processed in large piles called windrows, which took six to eight months to break down into finished compost. The expansion, an ASP system set up across 16 temperature- and moisture-controlled concrete bays, cuts that time in half while boosting the facility’s processing capacity from 3 million pounds of food waste per year to 62.4 million pounds, DSNY says. The facility also can process 147 million pounds of yard waste annually, bringing the facility’s total capacity to 209.4 million pounds of incoming material per year.

According to DSNY, the facility has produced approximately 42 million pounds of finished compost annually over the last several years, 60 percent of which is sold to landscapers, and 40 percent of which is given away to community groups, parks and residents. DSNY expects the amount of compost produced and given away to increase with the facility’s expanded capacity.

This expansion comes as New York’s curbside composting program scales citywide. The program is currently available in all of Brooklyn and Queens and will be available across the entire city in October.

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Safety

Fatality rate for waste and recycling industry declines in 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released 2022 figures for industry and occupational fatality data.

According to the BLS in its 2022 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, the fatality rate for refuse and recyclables collectors fell significantly from 27.9 per 100,000 full-time equivalents (FTE) in 2021 to 22.6 per 100,000 FTE in 2022, while the national rate for all industries increased.

This is the third consecutive year the rate has dropped for the industry, while the national rate has increased over the same period.

“While we are pleased with the declining rate of fatalities in our industry, one fatality is one too many,” says Jim Riley, interim president and CEO of the Arlington, Virginia-based National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA). “We commend our members for making safety a priority and look forward to continuing our efforts to bring every worker home safely at the end of every shift.”

Kirk Sander, NWRA chief of staff and vice president of safety and standards, adds, “We need to continue to press to improve our industry to get off the top 10 and strive for our ultimate goal of zero fatalities.”

BLS data on workplace injuries and illnesses is published annually. Information on the waste and recycling industry is based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of waste and remediation services. BLS defines these services as “solid waste collection, other waste collection, hazardous waste collection, hazardous waste treatment and disposal, solid waste landfills and solid waste combustors and incinerators.”

Visit www.bls.gov for more details.

Funding

Tacoma, Washington, secures funding to electrify solid waste truck

The city of Tacoma, Washington, recently was awarded more than $2.5 million in grants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington State Department of Ecology. The city will use part of the funding to electrify one of its solid waste trucks. 

A $560,196 grant will facilitate the replacement of an aging solid waste diesel truck with a battery electric waste truck and the necessary charging infrastructure. The city currently operates a 2009-engine-year diesel truck.

“The opportunity to replace an old diesel garbage truck with a new electric model is particularly great news for our city,” Deputy Mayor Kristina Walker says in a news release. “We need to continue transitioning city vehicles to electric models to further reduce our carbon footprint and lower air pollution in our city.”

Lewis Griffith, Tacoma’s solid waste division manager, says the city is considering either a Battle Motors chassis with a Labrie Leach rear-loader body or a Mack chassis with a Heil rear-loader body for the electric truck.

“This upgrade is necessary as the environmental services department is looking to reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions,” Griffith says. “A battery electric truck will help us achieve those goals since the truck will not emit any emissions at all.”

Apart from emissions reduction, Griffith says other benefits of switching to an electric truck include noise reduction and reduced maintenance costs attributed to oil changes. 

“Diesel and CNG [compressed natural gas] trucks emit quite a bit of noise when the engine is operating,” he says. “An electric truck does not have an internal combustion engine, … reducing the noise you would normally have [when] operating the engine.” 

Some city officials have brought up concerns related to battery charge, overall battery life and charging infrastructure. Griffith says the trucks can operate approximately eight-to- 10-hour shifts, but this does not account for the city’s many hills, which could result in lower operating time. The charging infrastructure is a costly investment, and space in the city’s truck parking lot is limited; however, Griffith says Tacoma is researching these concerns with manufacturers.

The city already has started electrifying its solid waste fleet, with three in-service electric pickup trucks and nine more on the way, as well as an electric forklift due early this year. There are no current plans to transition to an entirely electric collection fleet. Griffith says electric trucks are more expensive than CNG trucks, and the city of Tacoma does not have the budget to make a full transition currently.

Tacoma’s solid waste utility provides curbside service to more than 58,500 residential and commercial customers and has an 89-truck fleet. Other services include recycling and food and yard waste services, as well as self-haul options for waste, recycling, yard waste and household hazardous waste disposal at the Tacoma Recovery & Transfer Center.