IDENTIFYING PRIORITIES

Identifying priorities:

materials, programs and generators

Understanding the makeup of your local discard management system, the composition of materials being wasted, and the opportunities and limitations of your community are necessary steps in setting your priorities for recovery.

Materials without sufficient quantity in your disposed waste stream or without developed markets will be difficult to recover cost effectively. Likewise, maximizing your ability to involve the entire community in your efforts can only occur once you understand how much of what types of materials are being discarded, and by whom.

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Task One: Perform an existing services and service voids analysis.

Use the information gathered previously to analyze your existing system and programs. Based on your Existing conditions evaluation, what current programs and opportunities exist to recover discarded materials in the local community? Use the sample spreadsheet (available on the CRRA zero waste toolkit cd), or set up one of your own.

Goals of a Voids Analysis

The goals of a Recovery Service Voids Analysis are:

To systematically select and prioritize target materials and their associated waste reduction recovery, processing and marketing strategies;

To identify recovery service voids: materials for which there is no current mechanism for waste reduction, recovery or marketing, thereby essentially relegating this material to become a waste or litter;

To establish a method by which local, regional and state agencies responsible for implementing waste reduction and recovery programs may agree on priorities and expectations for future recovery programs; and

To identify recovery service opportunities: materials for which there is some waste reduction and/or recovery mechanism available within the region, though the portion of material being wasted is significant enough to warrant expansion and/or diversification of the recovery programs for that material.

From the Del Norte - Humboldt Cooperative Regional Plan, September 2001. Full text of this document appears on CD-Rom, in Rural Resources folder.

Resources:

Analysis of program needs based on an evaluation of discarded and recovered materials has been termed a service voids analysis in work done by Dr. Dan Knapp of Urban Ore. This term was also used in the Del Norte Zero Waste Plan to refer to a systematic review of existing and needed programs required to help a community implement its zero waste plan. For more information about service opportunities and service needs, or voids, see the Del Norte Zero Waste Plan, available through the GRRN website, at www.GRRN.org. Additional information on Dr. Knapp’s twelve material categories and service voids analysis is also available on this website, and in the Zero Waste Resources folder of the CD-Rom.

The Regional Cooperative Plan developed by Humboldt and Del Norte Counties through a contract with the California Integrated Waste Management Board also utilized a services analysis to help guide the selection of programs and materials for regional implementation.

Further discussion of the process of conducting a voids analysis is available in the Rural Cooperative Recycling Tool Kit, prepared by the Rural Counties Environmental Services Joint Powers Authority, April 2002. A full electronic copy of this document is included in the Rural Resources folder of the CD-Rom.

Task Two: Identify service needs.

Use the information gained in the discard study to determine what material types exist in sufficient quantities to target for additional recovery. Use this sample spreadsheet, the detailed example in the “Planning” folder of the Zero Waste Resources file on the CD-Rom, or set up one of your own

Task Three: Target large waste generators.

Identifying specific generators of potentially recoverable materials is a necessary step in designing cost-effective programs that meet the needs of the local community. Not only will this help to create support for newly implemented programs, it also provides an important opportunity to introduce the concept of source reduction to local businesses and residents.

Determine whether your waste generation study contains information about the percentage of waste from residential and commercial sources. If not, contact your local hauler(s) to find out how much waste is collected from businesses, multi-family dwellings, and area residents.

The best source of information about large waste generators is usually local haulers and disposal facility operators. Your solid waste collection contracts should provide tools to encourage hauler cooperation in identifying these large customers. If your disposal facility accepts self-haul waste, having someone spend a week on site with a clip board will prove invaluable in learning more about the identity of your large generators and the composition of their discards.

Encourage representatives of the business community to participate in your planning process. For more information about implementing commercial recycling programs, go to Commercial Innovations and Challenges (full version) or summary See also Unit Four, Resources.

California’s Integrated Waste Management Hierarchy begins by promoting the importance of changing our behavior to produce less waste (source reduction, waste prevention).

Because this basic concept requires that we change the way we think, act, work, and live in order to minimize the amount of waste we produce, it is often easier to think in terms of more tangible and measurable waste reduction methods such as recycling and composting when developing recovery strategies.

Resources:

Learning how to perform waste audits for local businesses, industries, and institutions is an important tool in reducing waste while building community support. Waste characterization information is available through the California Integrated Waste Management Board’s website. In addition, the CIWMB has created an electronic database with default waste profiles for a variety of industry groups. While these profiles cannot accurately reflect every business in every community, they may provide a helpful starting point for working with the businesses in your area.

Involve the community in deciding what criteria to consider when choosing and implementing new programs and facilities. Not only will you maximize the chance for a successful outcome, you will probably be surprised at how much knowledge and interest the members of your community are able to contribute to the process. One of the primary goals of holding a community planning workshop is to gather input on the criteria used to make future decisions and program selections.

Some sample criteria may include:

The quantity of material discarded, and its percentage of the waste stream;

The existence or lack of existing programs, markets, and facilities;

Special considerations such as toxicity or potential impacts to health and the environment;

The ease or difficulty, and cost of establishing new programs, markets and facilities;

The ability of a program or facility to serve a large number of local residents and businesses;

The ability of a program or facility to provide economic, as well as environmental benefit;

Other local considerations.

See the Humboldt-Del Norte Regional Plan Text and the Rural Cooperative Toolkit, in the Rural Resources section of the CD-Rom, for more information about selection criteria.

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