Transfer stations are an important part of most local solid waste systems. They serve as a critical piece of infrastructure to minimize miles driven on local streets and allow route trucks to spend less time making long trips to a landfill and more time on collections routes. Over time, the general trend in solid waste has been toward increasing diversion. This is due to a variety or factors including preserving air space in the receiving landfills, minimizing organic material from the landfill-bound materials, and removing materials not appropriate for the landfill (household hazardous materials, ties, white goods, batteries, etc.). In addition to the MSW and diverted material streams, many facilities are also being tasked with handling the collection and transfer of single-stream recyclables and organics (food waste, yard waste, etc.).
The other challenge that the industry has run into is educating the general public about what they should and should not put in their waste and recycling receptacles. This has led to a lot of recyclables in the waste stream and a lot of waste in the recycling stream. Both private and public entities have worked hard to try and rescue recyclables from the waste stream and divert them from landfills, which leads to more areas on the tipping floor required to store these materials that they sorted onsite.
Given the wide range of collection, diversion, and transfer activity options, site operators need to take a comprehensive and flexible approach to planning and developing their transfer facilities to meet their immediate needs, while remaining able to accommodate future needs as the material stream and local needs dictate.
Material Stream
The first step for this process (new or existing facility) is to analyze the material stream the site will be receiving and is projected to receive (in the future). Ideally, your facility planning and ops teams will be able to plot out the in-bound materials and identify opportunities for diversion into non-MSW streams that have viable markets in your area. You should engage your stakeholders to determine whether there are opportunities for increasing materials to your facility if you offered additional diversion opportunities. For example, if you prohibit green waste as you typically do not receive enough of it for it to be worth your effort, that can become a self-confirming cycle. Have conversations with the public and third party haulers to see if there are opportunities to expand your range of materials accepted. Not all areas have the same end markets for materials, so reconciling the need for diversion with realistic end use is a critical consideration.
An additional consideration in this process is the incorporation of mandatory waste bans of certain materials in different states and markets. These are not uniform across the country, so understanding your local requirements as well as the potential for them to be expanded is an important consideration. | Read the Full Article on Waste Advantage Magazine
