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SWANA Issues New Policy on Waste-to-Energy

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:23:24 GMT

Silver Spring, MD - The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has issued a policy that renews SWANA’s support of waste-to-energy as an important part of an integrated solid waste management system. SWANA believes that this policy will support the many communities that are considering expanding or building new waste-to-energy facilities.

The policy states that the use of waste-to-energy technology should be consistent with the USEPA’s current waste management hierarchy and local government integrated solid waste management plans that include existing and planned waste prevention, waste reduction and recycling programs. The policy then outlines the best practices a community must consider before implementing this technology.

This update is the culmination of the efforts of SWANA’s Waste-to-Energy Technical Division, which spearheaded the effort.

“It is important for the public to understand that waste-to-energy facilities positively impact greenhouse gas emissions on a life cycle basis,” stated Division Director Joe Murdoch. "This reflects the significant advances and investments in air pollution control that have been made at these facilities as the technology has evolved and complied with Federal law.”

The updated policy Waste-to-Energy as Part of Integrated Solid Waste Management was approved by SWANA’s International Board of Directors on January 12, 2012. It can be found here.

SWANA Releases White Paper Highlighting Economic Benefits of Waste-to-Energy

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:56 GMT

Silver Spring, MD – The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) released a white paper titled “Waste-to-Energy Facilities Provide Significant Economic Benefits.” The purpose of this white paper is to illustrate the financial success of waste-to-energy operations throughout the United States. Waste-to-energy is a reliable and renewable form of energy that has become the basis for many of the most successful solid waste management systems in North America. More than 80 waste-to-energy plants throughout the United States have allowed municipalities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and waste to landfills, while providing significant financial benefits to their communities.

The paper highlights a number of economic benefits communities achieve by investing in waste-to-energy such as additional revenues generated from the sale of recovered metals and renewable energy. These revenue streams have been used to fund other solid waste activities as well as loan re-payment.

“This paper demonstrates the positive economic performance of many waste-to-energy facilities over several decades,” said John H. Skinner, Ph.D. SWANA Executive Director and CEO. “Other municipalities considering this technology across North America can have confidence that they can be operated in an environmentally sound manner and can actually represent an economic asset to the community,” Skinner added.

In conjunction with the release of this white paper, SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation (ARF) will be releasing a report entitled, “The Economic Development Benefits of Waste-to-Energy Facilities.” This report surveys the solid waste systems in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and concludes that properly managed waste-to-energy facilities offer an array of financial benefits to the communities that utilize them.

A copy of the ARF report will be available in February 2012.
A copy of the white paper can be found here.

SWANA Supports Extension of Renewable Energy Grants

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:02:21 GMT

On November 30, SWANA as a member of the 1603 Coalition sent a letter to Congress in support of an extension of the 1603 grant program. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Section 1603, operations that qualified for Section 45 and 48 tax credits may elect to receive grant payments worth up to 30% the capital cost of the facility. WTE and LFG operations both qualify if owned by a tax-payer. This program is set to expire on December 31, 2011.

“To date twenty-six solid waste operations have taken advantage of this program, amounting to over fifty million dollars in grants a great investment in our industry” said John H. Skinner, PhD, Executive Director and CEO of the Solid Waste Association of North America.

The letter encourages Congress to extend this valuable program as it will create jobs, spur economic growth and promote private sector development of energy technologies.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) 2011 Solid Waste Management Conference

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

At the 2011 ASTSWMO Solid Waste Management Conference, held in Kansas City, MO on August 9-11, SWANA’s Jeremy O’Brien, P.E., Director of Applied Research, gave two presentations on reports recently developed through SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation.

In the opening plenary session, “Finding Sustainable Funding Sources for State Regulatory Programs in a Time of Market Shift,” Mr. O’Brien presented key findings from a 2010 ARF report on Sustainable Funding Options for Recycling Programs. O’Brien also presented findings from the peer-reviewed FY2011 ARF report on the “Long Term Environmental Impacts of Subtitle D Landfills” at a breakout session on the long term care of landfills.

The conference was attended by approximately 125 representatives from 47 state solid waste regulatory agencies along with EPA national and regional staff.

Presentations are available here: http://astswmo.org/Pages/Meetings/Past_Meetings/2011-Solid_Waste.html.

SWANA’S INAUGURAL WASTE CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES SHOWCASE TO PROVIDE CRUCIAL INSIGHTS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:13:31 GMT

Silver Spring, MD – SWANA’s Inaugural Waste Conversion Technologies Showcase will take place on Tuesday, August 23-25, 2011, and will focus on newly emerging waste conversion technologies (WCTs) for recovering energy, fuels and other resources from solid waste. Technologies covered will include gasification, plasma arc gasification, pyrolysis, hydrolysis/fermentation and anaerobic digestion technologies. The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) will be hosting this unique and important event at their annual WASTECON conference in Nashville.

Local governments are increasingly being asked to implement these technologies, many of which have limited operating data or no full scale field experience. Elected officials need to understand both the potential benefits and the potential risks of implementing these technologies, while considering their potential to provide green jobs and while converting waste into transportation fuels and other energy products. Solid waste professionals need to be able to carry out a thoughtful, critical and penetrating evaluation of these technologies as necessary to protect the interests of the citizens who, ultimately, pay the bills.

SWANA’s Inaugural Waste Conversion Technologies (WCT) Showcase will address the needs and perspectives of the public sector solid waste manager, who not only represents the local government, but who also must address critical implementation issues, such as siting and community endorsement. The Showcase will feature an entire track of technical sessions on WCTs and associated planning and implementation topics. Both elected officials and solid waste program managers are highly encouraged to attend.

For more information and to view the Waste Conversion Technologies Showcase schedule please visit www.wastecon.org.

SWANA RESPONSE TO NSWMA PRIVATIZATION RELEASE

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:56:10 GMT

No one is surprised when, in tough economic times, a trade organization takes the lead in promoting the financial interests of its members. Fair enough. But, not when it seeks these ends by distorting the facts and attempting to confuse the public. In response to many inquiries, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) is providing the following comments on the March 2011 release on privatization of solid waste management services issued by the National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA)¹.

The most glaring deficiency in the NSWMA release is the complete lack of recognition or respect for local government’s essential responsibility for solid waste management in their jurisdictions.

“Solid waste management decisions must reflect community values and are therefore an essential prerogative of local government,” said John H. Skinner, Ph.D. SWANA’s Executive Director and CEO. “Solid waste management is, first and foremost, strongly grounded in the need to protect public health, safeguard the environment and conserve and recover material and energy resources. It is not a commodity like soap detergent or cable television that can be left to the whims of short-term profit and loss decisions.”

Skinner added, “SWANA certainly supports privatization efforts that are supportive of local government’s public service authorities---but in the absence of that support, privatization will not be successful.”

Such policy was firmly endorsed in a 2007 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that couldn’t have been clearer or stronger in its support of local government’s role in solid waste management.² Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that: “Unlike private enterprise, government is vested with the responsibility of protecting the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.” Local governments can never contract out their accountability and responsibility to the public.

The Court’s decision also acknowledged that waste disposal has been a traditional government activity for years, and significantly strengthened the authority of local governments to put in place recycling and energy recovery programs that reduce dependence on landfill disposal. Local governments are now able to legally direct solid wastes collected within their jurisdictions to publicly owned materials recovery facilities (MRFs), waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, composting operations, household hazardous waste centers and transfer stations.

This view was emphasized by Sara Bixby, SWANA International President, and Director of the South Central Iowa Solid Waste Agency:

“As we’ve told the Iowa legislature repeatedly, one of our common struggles in less densely populated areas is simply to get garbage collected. This is because private waste haulers have cut services in many areas because of limited housing density and long travel distances. If solid waste management is essential to public health and environmental protection, it shouldn’t be dependent on corporate profit or loss.”

Another perspective was provided by Dick Sprague, a SWANA International Board Member, who has been active in standardization of public and private waste management practices for more than 25 years:

“This release was authored by an organization that has a clear bias toward the private sector, which funds most of its activities. It could be directly countered with numerous ‘managed competition’ articles that demonstrate the exact opposite: when public and private parties bid under defined terms and conditions, the public party almost always wins, even in highly unionized utilities. SWANA members have published many articles that show how the public sector succeeds in solid waste, wastewater and water fields.”

Jeremy O’Brien, Director of SWANA’s Applied Research Program was very surprised by the limited and narrow set of reference material that attempted to support the NSWMA position:

“Half of the references were a decade old; one was published in 1977 and others were newspaper articles and NSWMA staff papers. They certainly do not reflect the current technical literature on the subject, and do not support the overly broad generalizations in the report,” O’Brien commented.

A more thorough analysis of data would be required before any conclusions can be drawn about the efficiencies and effectiveness of public versus private solid waste management services. The most important factor is that all entities work toward improving their services.

Skinner concludes, "SWANA, through its research and education efforts, will continue to provide its members with up-to-date and environmentally and economically sound approaches for contracting for services." ¹Privatization: Saving Money, Maximizing Efficiency, & Achieving Other Benefits in Solid Waste Collection Disposal Recycling. The National Solid Waste Management Association, March 2011.

²United Haulers Association v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority, 127 S. Ct. 1786, 2007.

SOLICITATIONS FOR APPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY POSITION FOR FY2010

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In accordance with Policy MA-32, the Association is currently requesting applications from interested candidates for the position of International Secretary for fiscal year 2010, September 2009 – August 2010, (but serving by tradition from the 2009 Annual Business Meeting in September 2009, to the 2010 Annual Business Meeting in August 2010.)

Applications for FY 2010 are due to the Associate Director prior to December 31, 2008.

The application packet must include the following documentation:

1. Letter of interest;
2. Resume;
3. Summary of Qualifications clearly responding to each of the selection criteria set forth in Section V of MA-32 (ISWM, SWANA governance experience, professional experience, interpersonal skills, communication skills, etc.).
4. Letters of support or other documentation supporting candidate’s contribution to SWANA.
5. Letter of support from candidate’s local SWANA chapter; and
6. Letter of support from candidate’s employer, where applicable. This letter of support must include language that acknowledges the candidate’s obligation to attend board meetings and other SWANA events, as invited and necessary to represent the Association, and to devote the time required to fulfill the duties of office for a five-year period.

Please refer to policy MA-32 for further details (available from the Associate Director at kcallaghan@swana.org or by calling 240-494-2248).

Election will be with IB approval and by written ballot of the SWANA Membership via on-line voting in August 2009. Resumes of each candidate will be available on-line with the ballot.

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