国产麻豆

On track to convert all of their refuse vehicles to RNG, Dekalb County鈥檚 Sanitation Division has also concentrated on refreshing and re-evaluating their programs in safety, recycling and training.

Serving 160,000 single-family residential homes and 8,500 commercial customers, DeKalb County, GA鈥檚 Sanitation Division (Sanitation) was created in 1937. The initial twice per week garbage service to unincorporated DeKalb has expanded to include the cities of Brookhaven, Chamblee, Dunwoody, Lithonia. This service now includes single stream recycling and yard trimmings recycling as well.听 Today, Sanitation operates with 306 fleet vehicles and 699 employees dealing with household garbage, yard trimmings, single-stream recycling, appliances and furniture and special collections request. Also included are construction and demolition materials, bulky yard trimmings, tires, and commercial waste and recycling (including drop-off and C&D). Front load containers, compactor boxes, open top containers are provided to commercial customers as well. Sanitation also operates three MSW transfer stations, one compost facility, one MSW landfill and one C&D landfill.

Making the Transition to RNG

When the fuel prices spiked in 2008, the cost of fuel increased the Sanitation budget by $2,000,000 in the first year alone. As a result, in April 2012, Sanitation began the transition to making transportation fuel from landfill gas using the Seminole Landfill. 鈥淓ven though Sanitation had been researching the use of alternate fuels since 2006, the biggest challenge was convincing the county government board of commissioners that the new technology was really available,鈥� says William Malone, Associate Director of the Sanitation Division. 鈥淲e had to educate the general public that the new technology was working in other solid waste trucks in the US and that it looked like that it was going to be a reliable project. In 2009 Sanitation was able to receive a stimulus grant that assisted in convincing the elected officials that the change to compressed natural gas would be cheaper and have better emissions as a fuel to power all of the Sanitation vehicles.鈥� As a result of the stimulus grant in April 2009, Sanitation began the procurement process to convert landfill gas to a transportation fuel. The BOC awarded the design build to a to construct the RNG Plant, CNG Fuel Station and convert 40 vehicles to operate on CNG Fuel. The conversion was completed in April 2012 and the high Btu conversion plant received LEED Gold certification in 2013. 鈥淭here are about a dozen landfills in the country that produce high Btu natural gas. Seminole is the first to receive LEED Gold Certification for the process,鈥� says Malone. Now, 42 vehicles have been converted to renewable natural gas (RNG). Eventually, Sanitation鈥檚 plan is to convert the entire over-the-road fleet to RNG in seven to eight years. Only the county鈥檚 Watershed Division has converted one vehicle to CNG, however some state agencies including the Board of Education and several utilities do fuel up at the Seminole CNG fuel station.

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鈥淚 believe that the industry needs to convert all solid waste collection vehicles to CNG or LNG (alternate) fuels. Solid waste vehicles do not get good miles per gallon (2 to 3 mph) so all of these vehicles should operate on renewable natural gas. This will help stabilize and make the fuel cost more predictable as well as take our country off imported oils.鈥� says William Malone, Associate Director of the Sanitation Division.

Increasing Capacity

In 2002, when the Seminole Landfill was running out of airspace, Sanitation was able to permit the relocation of a creek to increase capacity. After the drainage of creek was relocated to a different discharge area, Sanitation installed a drainage network under the new permitted space, provided mitigation of all wetlands and creek impacts onsite and constructed disposal cells on top of the drainage network. Now, the landfill鈥檚 estimated capacity is to 2110.听 In addition, in 2008, an old incinerator plantwas cleaned up in Decatur. All of the waste material was removed to proper disposal areas and clean fill was transported in to construct the new facilities. Now, it is the location of Sanitation鈥檚 new LEED-certified transfer station and administration building.

Recycling Programs and Reaching Out

Today Sanitation has 33 percent of its residential customer base subscribing to once per week recycling. Sanitation recycles all 7 grades of plastic, all colors of beverage containers, aluminum, tin cans and mixed papers in its program. Sanitation also has a commercial recycling program for the same items and a convenience center for anyone wanting to drop off recyclable items in DeKalb County. They also sponsor the Keep DeKalb Beautiful Program that provides outreach and education programs to civic group, neighborhood associations, board of education, commercial businesses and the general public.

In addition, twice per year in the Spring and Fall, Sanitation sponsors a Household Hazardous Waste drop-off program at their central transfer station on a Saturday morning when the facility is not open for business. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been well received. People clean out their basements and storage buildings usually around these times year so we thought it was a good time to do it,鈥� says Malone. He usually finds that not only do customers drop off a lot of paint, but also pesticides, herbicides, and even some unidentifiable material because of the length of storage time. However, Malone points out that they use a third-party vendor who is able to determine what the material is and they make sure it is properly recycled or disposed of rather than just putting it in the garbage.

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Training and Safety

Within the Sanitation Division, there are two full-time employees and one part-time employee that train all the 699 employees every two years. Instructors conduct classes on safety, accident prevention, injuries and commercial driving twice per month.鈥淲e believe that safety is one of these items that you can鈥檛 just concentrate on one time and assume nothing changes. Everyone needs to be reminded of ongoing safety issues鈥攅specially in the solid waste industry,鈥� says Malone. Sanitation also provides the opportunity to hold some outside training and asks some front line employees to attend certain training where the Division can logistically afford to let them be away from the day-to-day operations. 鈥淲e do some training with APWA, SWANA and occasionally there are other courses that come up through third-party vendors that we鈥檒l allow employees to participate in. We鈥檝e also been doing more Webinars because it is very cost-effective since we can put 20 people in a room at a time to watch a safety presentation.鈥�

After a new driver or collector comes into the Sanitation Division and fills out and reviews the necessary paperwork, he must get oriented to the way business is conducted, which includes going through a driver training program for the first few weeks. A supervisor or very experienced individual rides with the new employee in order to ensure that the driver is taking the necessary safety precautions, etc. The collector training process is a little more intense. He is put on route with a senior collector for a specific period of time until the senior collector feels that the person is ready. Malone says it could be up to 3 to 4 weeks if it is necessary. 鈥淲e want to make sure they are fully engaged, so we鈥檒l keep them under training until we鈥檙e satisfied that the person is taking the safety precautions to minimize any kind of injuries or accidents.鈥�

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Sanitation does have an employee incentive program for employees and drivers that help motivation and encouragement. 鈥淲e do things like spot awards, recognition awards, etc. We also promote a variety of things that we consider to be safety issues鈥攆rom reduced idling on their vehicle to helping out someone in order to prevent an accident. We try to instill safety while motivating them to keep a close eye on everyone else. The more that we can do to promote safety, the more we are bringing awareness to the community and the people we serve,鈥� says Malone.

Looking Ahead

Malone is proud of the fact that Sanitation has kept the solid waste fees stable to the residents and businesses within DeKalb County and plans to keep it that way. 鈥淪anitation has not had to raise fees since January 1, 2006 and plans to keep finding new sources of revenue or more efficient way to collect waste to keep the fees stable for many more years.鈥� This includes plans to add solar panels for electricity on some of the closed areas of the landfill as well as demonstrating renewable fuel from going algae using leachates and CO₂ from making High Btu fuel. . Also Sanitation is working with a local college to develop natural gas from using leachate and CO2 at the landfill. The Sanitation Division is also piloting a once per week garbage program in lieu of the twice a week service they presently provide. 鈥淩esidents do not like to see any changes in reduction is services so it is a challenge to make the strong case for the necessary change.鈥� Most of the community programs have reached out to the participants and the pilot program is scheduled to begin on April 28, 2014.

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Malone is proud of Sanitation and believes that they are well-organized and on track to continue to focus on safety and preventing accidents. 鈥淲e take a proactive approach in order to help our employees avoid re-occuring accidents. I think that some departments or divisions may get comfortable and not continue to refresh and re-vitalize their troops, but in this industry it is a continuation growth process. We want our employees to go home safely at the end of the day and spend time with their loved ones, which is what working is all about.鈥�

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For more information, contact William Malone, at (404) 294-2927 or via e-mail at [email protected].