HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.22.18 SWAC Minutes
JEFFERSON COUNTY
SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES – Thursday, March 22, 2018
Jefferson County Public Works Building, Conference Room
OPENING BUSINESS
Meeting called to order at 3:00 P.M by Bart Kale, Chair
Members Present:
Kathleen Kler County Commissioner
Lisa Crosby District #1 Carol Cummins District #1
Jenifer Taylor District #2 Bart Kale Citizen-at-Large
Dave Zeller City of Port Townsend Glenn Gately County Conservation District
Chad Young DM/Murrey’s Disposal Alysa Russell Skookum Contract
Staff Present:
Tom Boatman Public Works SW Manager Jerry Mingo Public Works MRW Coordinator
Laura Tucker Public Health, Education Chris Spall Public Works Support Staff
Members Absent: Chris Giraldes Waste Connections
Guests: Janet Welch, Tacy Grisman, Dan Toepper, Stacy Hall
There is a quorum.
Approval of January 22, 2018 Minutes with these corrections: Laura Tucker added that about $68,000 is available
to the Health Department for outreach and education. TAP Tin/Aluminum/Plastics mix should now be sorted due to
the plastics ban.
Correspondence: None received.
BUSINESS
1. Jeff West, New Day Recycling & Olympic Organics – Presentation on Organics Recycling
Solid waste industry background. Member of Composting Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) nationally. Started New
Day Recycling as an e-waste company in 2005. Moved into commercial recycling, and then food waste collection
which was fasting growing part of the business. Acquired EMU Compositing facility and reopened it as Olympic
Organics.
Basics of a good organics recycling program. Composting provides highest best use of organics materials;
much higher direct environmental benefit than other solid waste systems, stable and sustainable thru any
economic environment, and not subject to market changes. Key to success is a system approach: collection,
processing and markets. Composting is a manufacturing process and organic materials are an ingredient to the
end product being made. Composter must consider end product’s use when sourcing inbound ingredients.
Various feed stocks include beer-waste, manure, food-waste, grass, brush. Organics recycling is an evolving
industry that is still in its infancy. Fair amount of ‘green washing’ used to advertise supposed compostable
packaging. Talk to a composter to find vendors that sell compostable packaging products that have been field
tested and proven to break down.
Key questions to ask: How will it happen? Who does what, and where? Collection: self-haul cleanest,
semi-automated less clean, and automated least clean. Processing: Five different primary technologies used in
composting and each has pros and cons. Olympic Organics uses ASP. ASP is a foot print efficient system,
and problems with a pile are easy to isolate without ruining entire process. ASP and mass bed are fastest
growing technologies across the country. Education is critical and has to be robust. People want to do the
right thing but may not know what that is.
When getting started with a composter these are questions they will probably ask: What is it? Green
waste, compostable cups? Where did it come from? Composter needs to know feed stocks coming in. What
are the ratios? How much food waste vs green waste? Composter will take sample loads to determine
composition. Bio solids have to be separated from green waste, or treat all as bio solids. Bio solids have a
stigma – ‘poo dirt’. High Nitrogen, no contamination like with food waste, but market not as good due to
stigma. How much do you have? 1000 tons is much different than 20,000 tons. Facilities have a finite
capacity for what can be put thru the system at any given time and still produce quality material. Composter
considers if it is a feedstock they can handle, if they have the capacity for it, if they can market the product, and
the impact on end product currently being made. Capacity is determined from how often bays can be churned.
Cook 600 yards for 42 days. Accelerate or slow down process by adjusting number of days it cooks, which
affects curing time needed. Compost is best as it ages. More volume means faster churns, but compost is not
as good as it would be in 90 days of life. In peak season, can speed up process by reducing time in bay from
42 to 35 days. During slower season can cook it out for 60-90 days right in the bay. Based on facility’s
capacity, composter always judging how much can be taken in and how much can be sold, and manages that
flow.
Jefferson County’s Processing Options – Expand local capacity. Most of what is collected now goes to city
facility and is mixed with bio solids. Either expand that facility or truck it out someplace else. If you pull
away green waste and take it to an outside facility that leaves bio solids without a bulking agent. Could
address that by using overs (chunky woody pieces left after screening out finished compost) that come back
from the composter. Haul to an outside facility. Options depend on volume and character of material.
Regional facilities that handle food waste are North Mason, Olympic Organics, Cedar Grove, Cedar Grove
Everett, and Lens. Facilities that handle food waste with packaging are Cedar Grove, Lens, and Olympic
Organics. With packaging comes non-compostable packaging.
Viable in Jefferson Co. to expand organics recycling. High tip fee for garbage compared to tip fees for
organics. Would have to address impact on bio solids recycling. Keys are volume and type. Once known,
decisions on local vs outside processing can be made. Success requires all parts of the system work in unison.
Questions, answers, and discussion: What is meant by viable? Have key elements to be able to manage
more organics. Need bulking agent for bio solids. There are facilities that would take your product. Private
venture or government-private venture? Have transfer station and capacity to tip organic waste there now,
then truck it to composting facility, and then truck back finished compost and sell it here. Of the 40,000 cubic
yards processed each year, what is estimated organic food content? 15-20%. How much is contributed
by self-haul? About half of total volume, but no food waste accepted from general public by Jeff; only
accepted from carefully selected customers such as grocery stores, and school districts. More economical for
those customers to send food-waste to a composter than to pay garbage tipping fee. Your customers have to
haul to you? Both, they bring it or we charge to pick it up. Is general public food waste a problem? During
peak seasons, get it from Cedar Grove which receives Seattle’s household pickup. Comes in ground up and use
airlift vacuum systems to pull contamination out. Try to see it when it is dumped out. Approximately 10%
contamination. Any public concerns – cities, counties - that compost their own food-waste, or is it mostly
private? Nationally, mostly private. Assuming Olympic Organics is willing to expand, what are limiting
factors? Not too many limitations. Would need estimate of volume in tons of organic waste. Rough estimate
for Jefferson County is up to 2000 tons of organics annually mixed in the solid waste; does not count grocery
stores, school districts, hospitals. What would grocery stores expect to pay relative to their garbage costs?
Charge $175 for once a week service for 4 yard, about what it would cost for garbage. Challenge is building
the route density, having enough stops. Food waste weighs about 450 lbs. a yard, whereas garbage weighs
less. Truck hits weight limit before it is full, so can’t get as many stops in compared to garbage. Less efficient
compared to garbage. Leachate goes to city sewer or handled on site? Handled on site for most part. Use it
and pump it on fresh batches because it inoculates it with the microbes. 300,000 gallon pond it collects into.
In winter with heavy rains pump it out and take it to sewer treatment plant. Try to keep it as full as possible,
cause by August it is empty and have to truck water in. Moisture critical part of composting. Once a week
food waste collection, how quickly do you need to address it? Ground same day with green waste, then
stored till a bay open and ready to cook it. Jeff said he’s happy to have visitors to facility in Kingston.
Everyone thanked Jeff for his presentation.
2. Further discussion on impacts of China’s Ban. Prices continue to drop. Skookum reports cardboard slower than
normal. Still collecting and bailing TAP. Exploring options for ways to separate TAP and how to collect it.
Separate out tin, aluminum, and maybe no plastics at all; market for 1-2 plastics, but no market for 3-7s. If non-
marketable plastics taken out, TAP would still need to be separated. County most receptive to increase containers
to separate TAP. Tom will send recent articles about this to SWAC. Rumors of domestic markets opening in mid-
west but need permit to open up. Market for mixed recycle paper very bad, so basically it is being given away
Laura said grant funds available for redoing flyers – outreach and education, once solid info on this is known.
Opportunity to put info out on why contamination is a problem, and do education about sustainability.
MANAGER’S REPORT
Long Haul and Disposal Contract Activities. Jefferson County’s Long haul disposal contract will be going out for
RFP in this summer, possibly as early as August. Operational tours with emphasis on environmental systems of three
regional landfills completed:
a. Republic – Roosevelt Landfill. Tom Boatman and Kathleen Kler toured December 1, 2017.
b. Waste Management – Columbia Ridge Landfill. Tom Boatman and Greg Lanning, Port Townsend
Public Works Director toured on March 9th, 2018. Tom Boatman visited Olympic View transfer
station in Kitsap County in March and met with Kitsap staff and Waste Management who operates the
transfer station.
c. Waste Connections – Findley Buttes Landfill. Tom Boatman and Greg Lanning toured on March 16th,
2018.
No significant operational differences between the three landfills were noted and all operational staff at each were
knowledgeable about environmental systems. Transportation to each of the above landfills would include trucking
from Jacob Miller transfer station to a company rail node, by rail to designated landfill and then by truck to the landfill
working face. City of Port Townsend collection contract and Jefferson County’s disposal contract is up at the same
time. Waste trucks from Waste Connections franchise customers in unincorporated Jefferson County and the city pay
tipping fees for what is brought to transfer station.
2. Other Solid Waste Activities. Jerry Mingo spoke various things he is working on including upcoming HHW
collection event in Quilcene on April 14, 2018; ‘Secure Your Load’ campaign; new graphic with hazard icons that
are part of global harmonization pictogram; and signage for fluorescent light recycling. Jefferson County partners
with Light Recycle Washington which anyone, including business, can bring in up to 10 mercury bearing lamps a
day.
Next Meeting will be Thursday, May 24, 2018.
Adjournment at 4:30 PM