New year, new ideas

A new year is bringing some changes to the magazine.

Each month, companies announce new regional sales representatives, chief operating officers and even CEOs. Changes in leadership—particularly at the top—can alter the course a company takes in the ensuing years. We’ve decided to give these important personnel announcements their own place in our magazine, where you can learn about big changes at Suwanee, Georgia-based Doosan Infracore North America (now Develon), Mack Trucks, Greensboro, North Carolina, and more.

Waste Today also has launched a podcast series called “New Voices.” The new podcast will feature up-and-coming players in the waste and recycling industry. Listeners can learn more about how these up-and-comers came to the waste and recycling industry, what they’ve learned in the industry so far and the challenges they’ve faced since entering the field.

Another area relatively new to the waste industry is the increasing importance of environmental justice (EJ) and the need for more diverse opinions in conversations surrounding solid waste facilities. Unfortunately, the industry has a history of siting waste management facilities in under-resourced communities, which must learn to live with the negative effects those facilities can sometimes produce. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Addressing the inequities created by siting decisions that may have taken place decades ago can be complicated, costly endeavors for companies. Fortunately, “We won’t achieve what we don’t measure,” an article penned by Eugenia Manwelyan, a project manager for Vienna, Virginia-based Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, describes a systematic, step-by-step process that companies can initiate to address EJ challenges.

In addition, a complicated matter that affects the industry is the challenge landfill operators face when trying to track nonmethane organic compound (NMOC) emissions. Since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated its New Source Performance Standards, operators need to be aware of when they reach the lowered 34 megagrams per year (mg/yr) threshold for NMOC emissions at which point they need to install a landfill gas collection and control system (GCCS). ­­­­­Our story, “Under control,” describes how Houston-based WM’s Gray Wolf Regional Landfill in Dewey, Arizona, worked with SCS Engineers, Long Beach, California, to install a GCCS within 30 months after crossing that 34 mg/yr threshold.

Some of the landfill technologies we’ve been learning about have been particularly interesting to me, including the increased use of drones to help monitor potential LFG leaks, which SCS says it is doing in some locations. Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Sniffer Robotics has received EPA permission to use drone technology to prescreen for surface emissions at landfills. To learn more, see our Product Spotlight department. Following along with game-changing technology in landfill work and other areas of the industry has certainly become one of my favorite aspects of my work, and I look forward to hearing about more innovations throughout the year.