Omaha Solid Waste Task Force Presentation One

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Omaha Solid WasteTask ForcePresentation One

• April 22,2003
• Jerry Henscheid, Utilities Director
• Laura M. Dellinger, MAP
• Marcus Rivas, US EPA
• Clem Egger, US EPA

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What is integrated solid waste management?

• The approach to solid waste management preferred
  by the U.S. EPA and other federal agencies.
  
• It combines a number of techniques to handle a
  waste stream, such as waste reduction, reuse,
  recycling, composting and, lastly, disposal.

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The solid waste hierarchy
Waste Reduction
Reuse
Recycling Composting
Disposal (Landfilling)
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Waste Reduction

• Examining habits of use and purchasing to explore
  options of buying only whats needed or certain
  to be used up.
  
• (using washable coffee mugs or sport bottles
  instead of disposable cups, copying on both sides
  wherever possible, buying in bulk containers to
  save packaging waste, routing memos instead of
  making individual copies, repairing instead of
  replacing, buying ink pens for which refills can
  be purchased, etc.)

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Reuse

• Using something or passing it along to be used
  again, possibly for a very different purpose.
  
• (cake frosting tubs as childrens paintbrush
  holder, camera film canisters for nail and screw
  storage, plastic grocery bags for wastebasket
  liners, mailing envelopes for inter-office mail
  or as document protectors, used water/soda
  bottles as cooler chillers, margarine tubs as
  seedling starters, etc.)

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Recycling (collection)

• Remanufacturing or reconfiguring a material into
  another form
  
• (pulping paper into cellulose insulation or
  shredding it for animal bedding, putting ground
  tires into asphalt, using ground glass as road
  bed fill or in glassphalt, aluminum cans into
  patio furniture or new cans, milk jugs into
  plastic lumber furniture or TYVEK envelopes,
  making soda bottles into pillow filler or
  poly-cotton T-shirts, etc.)

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Recycled-content purchasing

• If your materials collected for recycling are to
  have good market value, YOU and others must seek
  out and purchase items made with recycled
  content.
• copier/printer paper
• legal pads, note pads and stickynotes
• computer floppy disks
• files, folders and report covers
• poly-cotton T-shirts
• re-refined motor oil
• Items in recycled-content packaging

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Composting

• Using natures most basic process to turn
  organics like food waste, yard waste and manure
  into soil improvement.
  
• High nitrogen (greens) non-meat food scraps,
  grass clippings
  
• High carbon (browns) fallen leaves, tree
  trunks and branches, scrap wood, low-value paper
  
• Final product
• adds organic material as well as chemical
  nutrients for soil
  
• improves water retention of soil (holds 150 of
  own weight in water)
  
• improves disease and pest resistance of plants

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Final disposal (landfilling)

• Allows no way to recover incurred costs of
  collection and transport
  
• Offers no way to obtain revenue
• Completely wastes potential raw materials
• Landfill space is a constantly diminishing
  commodity
  
• Should be method of last resort

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Definition of some common terms

• Contaminate means to introduce a substance into
  water, soil or air that would cause decline in
  their quality and healthfulness.
  
• Construction demolition waste solid waste,
  largely inert, resulting from the building,
  renovation, demolition or razing of buildings,
  roads and other man-made structures.
• Hazardous waste waste that is ignitable,
  corrosive, toxic and/or reactive.
  
• Hospital or Medical wastes wastes such as body
  tissues, specimens of blood or blood elements,
  excreta, fluids and secretions obtained from
  patients or laboratory animals or clothing,
  rags, paper or plastic goods contaminated with
  such wastes.
• Landfills disposal facilities or parts of a
  facility where solid waste is permanently placed
  in or on the land.
  
• Solid waste all solid and semi-solid wastes,
  including but not limited to abandoned vehicles
  or parts thereof, ashes, demolition and
  construction wastes, discarded commodities,
  garbage, industrial wastes, rubbish and swill
  all liquid, solid and semi-solid materials which
  are not the primary products of public, private,
  industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural
  operations. Solid waste includes sludge from
  waste water treatment plants, septage from septic
  tanks and wood waste.
• Vector a living animal, insect, bird or reptile
  that transmits or can transmit an infectious
  disease from one organism to another.

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Definition of common terms II

• Collection cart residential dumpster
  commercial.
  
• Transfer station location where waste collected
  from individual sites is combined for transport
  to disposal facility.
  
• Materials sorting facility location where
  reusable items or items that need to be collected
  over time are held (like auto batteries, yard
  waste, tires, appliances).
• Recycling center location where items actively
  collected in a recycling program are brought to
  be sorted, baled and stored for transport or sale
  to a market or broker.
• Solid waste code rules governing the management,
  transporting and disposal of solid waste that
  includes enforcement provisions and penalties for
  violations.
• Integrated solid waste management plan a
  statement of a communitys vision for solid waste
  management stating conditions at the time of its
  adoption, the final result desired and
  intermediate steps, revenue and income sources
  and timelines for reaching the desired final
  result. Serves to facilitate decisions on
  prioritization of resources and activities over a
  long-term period. Should be revisited every 5 to
  7 yrs.

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Steps to producing a plan

• Gather information to define current realities
• Waste generation quantities
• Commercial and residential
• Composition of waste stream
• How much is recyclable or compostable
• Costs for staff, equipment, fuel, maintenance,
  services, disposal
  
• Existing income or revenue sources and amounts
• Fees
• Housing dedicated funds
• General Assistance Program money
• Grants
• Provided services to non-tribal communities

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Steps to producing a plan II

• Present tribal members with information, describe
  and discuss possible goals and options
  
• Presentations in schools and at public meetings
• Panel discussions / question-and-answer sessions
• Articles in newspapers/newsletters
• Informational/educational materials
• Determine public consensus on goals and options
• Surveys
• Public referendums

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Steps to producing a plan III

• Write description of chosen goals and steps to be
  taken to arrive at them
  
• Set rates to best support accomplishment of solid
  waste goals
  
• Produce an ordinance to codify principals of
  solid waste plan, encourage and reward
  compliance, enforce against and punish violators
  
• Follow through on rewards and enforcement

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Task Force participant issues/concerns

• What does this all mean for you? What have you
  seen or experienced that motivates you to
  contribute to this process?
  
• How can a solid waste plan address, solve,
  minimize and/or help with the issues of concern?
  
• What result or outcome do you hope to produce?
  Why its important to define and communicate that
  vision to yourselves and others.

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Solid waste isnt that important Oh yeah?

• Solid waste disposal methods have a direct impact
  on your health.
  
• If you burn it, you breathe it and drink it.
• Burning only reduces volume to 40.
• The remaining ash has the worst of the worst
  components of what you started with (heavy metals
  and noxious chemicals), and future rainfall drags
  those things into the soil and groundwater.
• If you dump it, you eat and/or drink it
• Just as with the ash mentioned above
• Plus, wildlife and domestic animals could eat the
  waste and become ill

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The Four Factors Determining Quality of Human
Health

• Access to medical care / treatment (_at_10)
• Are doctors, nurses, etc., nearby
• Genetics (_at_15)
• Tendencies to illness / disease inherited from
  parents and grandparents
  
• Behavior (_at_25)
• Whether you smoke, drink alcohol to excess, take
  drugs, eat right, exercise, etc.
  
• Quality of environment in which you live
  (_at_50)
  
• The cleanliness (or not) of air, water and soil
  (especially regarding crops, livestock and fish),
  exposure to hazardous chemicals or pollutants

According to Indian Health Service information
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The mating call of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Awww, nothing will ever really change!
Well, it wont if YOU dont!

• The pace of change and the degree of its success
  can be impacted by how each tribal member decides
  to take part - or not.
  

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If you are not part of the solution, you are
part of the problem.

• Taking no action to help, making no effort to
  contribute to positive change, is just as much an
  obstacle to that change as efforts to resist or
  directly oppose the change are.

Every action, including inaction, has a
consequence.
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Workgroups and Topics

• Costs/Funds/Expenses to Omaha Tribe
• Rules/Enforcement and their impacts
• How to build community support and participation
• Initiation of community projects
• (such as curbside recycling, backyard and
  larger-scale composting, community cleanups,
  possible economic enterprises, etc.)

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Next steps
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• There is no Trash Fairy
• There is no method of waste disposal thats free
  you either pay money to do it right or you pay
  later with health impacts, high disease rates and
  death.
• The way people dispose of trash is nothing more
  than habit, and the only obstacles to changing
  habits are a lack of belief it can be done or a
  lack of desire to do it.
• CANT DOESNT WANT TO
• BADLY ENOUGH !!

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What CAN you do to help?What WILL you do to
help?