Tuesday, April 20, L.A. County Sanitation Districts, Organized by the Southern California Council on Environment and Development [Summary report prepared by Jim Stewart]

WELCOME AND PURPOSE OF FORUM

Joe Haworth, Public Information Officer for the Sanitation Districts of L.A. County: We welcome you. The Districts are pleased to be a supporter of SCCED.

Kathleen Gildred, Director of SCCED: This forum is a follow-up to the "Getting to 50%" conference we held in June 1998, which was designed to help municipalities achieve 50% diversion by 2000. Following that conference we sent out a questionnaire to get your priority interests, which we have used to plan this forum series.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Dr. Eugene Tseng, UCLA Extension Waste Management and Recycling Program: We are reporting preliminary findings on the first thousand waste audits of businesses. Waste prevention/recycling provides big cost savings. Go after big businesses first. The larger 20% of businesses have 90% of any additional potential diversion.

Lupe Maria Vela, Director, Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division, Bureau of Sanitation, Los Angeles Department of Public Works: We established partnerships with businesses and developed over 50 publications to provide guidance for commercial recycling, accomplishing 45% citywide diversion for 1995.

Dean Richardson, Raytheon Hughes West: We are now at a 35% diversion rate, our goal is 50% for this year and we are going for 70% the following year. We recycled white paper and cardboard and achieved a diversion rate of 21%, with revenue/cost avoidance of $25,000. In 1998 we diverted or recycled nearly 500 tons of solid waste, scrap metal and surplus equipment for a savings of over $750,000.

Bruce Dolezal, Gillette Company PaperMate Division: We recycle all metals, oil, and plastics. We have found recycled pallets cost effective. The overall result is 80% diversion. We have also had a 95% reduction in hazardous emissions since 1987.

Joe Sloan, Director of Market Development for Consolidated Disposal: A hauler can: (1) Spread the message about recycling/diversion, (2) Provide separate pickup of recyclables, (3) Direct the material into a MRF, which can recover 25-40%.

Mark Harmon, Integrated Waste Manager for the City of Claremont: A successful commercial recycling program is a partnership between the public agency, commercial customer and the hauler, with one goal: Develop a cost-effective customer friendly, environmentally responsible, operationally feasible and legally compliant program.

WORKING WITH BUSINESSES

Jaime Lozano, City of Carson Waste Management Specialist: Carson has a proactive AB 939 compliance program, concentrating on public-private partnerships. This means we must get the cooperation of the business sector and the haulers.

Survey of 1,000 Businesses on Potential Source Reduction and Diversion

Dr. Eugene Tseng, UCLA Extension Waste Management and Recycling Program:

We have completed 2,000 waste audits of businesses. I am reporting our preliminary findings on the first thousand businesses.

The waste management hierarchy is (in order of decreasing desirability):

1. Source Reduction, which includes Waste Prevention, Waste Minimization, Reuse and Repair, and Improved Durability
2. Recycling, which includes Pre-Consumer Recycling (Internal Recycling), Post-Consumer Recycling, and Composting
3. Environmentally-Safe Transformation, such as Waste-to-Energy (Incineration, etc.) to use the "energy content" of solid waste
4. Environmentally-Safe Landfilling

We have verified the theory that if you concentrate on the largest 20% of the businesses, you will be dealing with nearly 80% of the total commercial waste. Jurisdictions with large businesses will have 40-80% of the existing commercial diversion. Additional potential diversion businesses can do themselves could add 5-15%. Smaller jurisdictions with smaller businesses have 25-40% existing diversion rate, with an additional potential diversion of 3-10%.

Summary of lessons learned:

1. Waste prevention can be a significant help. With an average existing internal diversion rate of 25% already being accomplished by the businesses, only an additional 25% of the waste stream must be diverted to reach 50% diversion.
2. Waste prevention/recycling provides big cost savings.
3. Hauler recycling accounts for a small percentage (less than 10%) of the actual diversion, the other 90% is internal diversion.
4. Go after big businesses first. The larger 20% of the businesses have 90% of any additional potential diversion.
5. Could do a regional MRF to increase diversion in smaller businesses because it may not be cost effective for individual small businesses to set up recycling programs.

Los Angeles Strategies for Commercial Recycling

Lupe Maria Vela, Director, Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division, Bureau of Sanitation, Los Angeles Department of Public Works:

Following a 1995 analysis of overall city waste composition by generator, the Los Angeles City Council decided to emphasize commercial and residential recycling. The Integrated Solid Waste Management office has developed a lot of recycling programs.

The Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division was created in 1998, with 26 staff from various groups, including ISWMD, to oversee citywide recycling programs. Our responsibilities include: AB 939 monitoring and report preparation; oversight of AB 939 implementation in all City departments; providing commercial, industrial and multi-family recycling assistance; recycling organics contact and marketing activities; household hazardous waste and used oil collection program; market development for recycled materials and products; biosolids contract development and education.

We started in 1990 to look at generation, disposal and diversion. We targeted 24 generator groups and established 24 working groups, hotels, grocers, schools, etc. The groups develop their own targets and decide how they can help, we do not mandate. We targeted 6 groups per year and have established partnerships and developed over 50 publications to provide guidance to businesses in the various generator groups. We have published a Recycling Resources Catalog with an order form for our publications, nearly all of which are free.

We have spent a lot of effort on monitoring and evaluating results. We have surveyed 1200 diversion facilities and 300 disposal companies so we have a good idea of the recyclables and solid waste flow in the city. From 1995 through 1997 we have disposed about 3.5 million tons each year. Our diversion is improving: in 1995, it was 44.5%; in 1996, 46.1%; and in 1997, 46.6%.

Report from Businesses on How We Reduced Waste and Saved Money

Dean Richardson, Raytheon Hughes:

Raytheon Hughes West is now at a 35% diversion rate, our goal is 50% for this year and we are going for 70% the following year. Our driving force is intra company competition.

In the first year, with no budget or resources, we recycled white paper and cardboard and achieved a diversion rate of 21%, with revenue/cost avoidance of $25,000. In 1998 we diverted 31%, recycled 2,013 tons of solid waste, for a cost avoidance of $44,000. This year we put 2 containers in every office cubicle, for trash and for recyclables. Our goal for 1999 is 50%.

In terms of source reduction, we have asked our office supplies vendor Boise Cascade to provide recyclable office supplies. We are also requiring 2-sided copying and use of electronic mail. Cardboard recycling has gone from 193 tons in 1998 to an expected 312 tons in 1999. Our cafeteria tray reuse program is saving 9,000 pounds/month, for a $4,000 cost avoidance. We recycled 56 tons of scrap metal for a savings of $27,000. Recycling surplus equipment was about 410 tons for a savings of $688,493.

Bruce Dolezal, Gillette Company PaperMate Division:

The Santa Monica PaperMate Division produces over 1 billion writing instruments annually. We look at each waste stream to determine the quantity of waste generated, where it can be recycled, the cost to recycle, the cost to dispose, the cost to replace, and the overall total cost savings from recycling. We are driven by doing the right thing. The overall result is 80% diversion. We have also had a 95% reduction in hazardous emissions since 1987.

WORKING WITH HAULERS

How Haulers Can Help Increase Commercial Diversion

Joe Sloan, Director of Market Development for Consolidated Disposal:

Haulers can help you with commercial diversion. The challenge is to make it work for both the hauler and the business. Business people look at the bottom line. Only 10% of commercial diversion is attributed to the hauler, but most of your ordinances, permits are directed to the hauler.

A hauler can:

1. Spread the message about recycling/diversion.
2. Provide separate pickup of containers for recyclables, even if it costs more.
3. Direct the material into a MRF, which can recover 25-40% of a mixed commercial waste stream. This is the cheapest way to get the diversion because we only have to pick up one container.

Working with Haulers from the Public Sector Perspective

Mark Harmon, Integrated Waste Manager for the City of Claremont:

Our department has 25 employees that provide: full service trash and recycling collection program 7 days a week; commingled recycled program with MRF-processed recyclables; variable sanitation rate with recycling costs as part of the commercial rates, so there is no separate fee for recycling.

The program has three players:

• Commercial customers who want a clean, efficient service at a cost comparable to neighboring businesses and/or communities.
• Haulers who want full cost recovery for collection services and compliance with municipal contracts.
• The public agency which is concerned with public policy and law, legislative compliance (AB 939, etc.) and environmental responsibility.

All three meet in the middle with the same goal: Develop a cost-effective customer friendly, environmentally responsible, operationally feasible and legally compliant commercial recycling program.

Steps toward achieving this goal include:

1. Identify your waste stream and the business composition of your community.
2. Clearly define your measurable diversion goal.
3. Create a partnership with your hauler to develop programs to meet your goals.
4. Present the program to City Council and the business community.
5. Measure success of the program.

In conclusion, a successful commercial recycling program is a partnership between the public agency, commercial customer and the hauler. An appropriate recycling program should address the concerns or needs of all the players.