Rethinking Solid Waste Management

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Rethinking Solid Waste Management

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Rethinking Solid Waste Management

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Purpose and Learning Objectives

Purpose:

The magnitude and negative impacts of solid waste have become increasingly apparent, especially in regards to

plastics and their presence in the oceans. As a result, there have been many approaches to rethinking what constitutes

waste and how waste can be avoided, used, and/or managed in a more sustainable manner. This course explores

these emerging approaches to waste management planning, and illustrates them with current examples of solid waste

management (SWM) plans and initiatives from various countries around the globe.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• recall the ways in which waste and waste management impact community health, form, and energy use

• utilize existing waste more effectively as materials or energy

• use the solid waste management principles of rethink/redesign, prevention/reduction, usage/diversion, and disposal

to determine key goals and strategies of a solid waste management plan, and

• use international, national, and regional examples to inform and improve solid waste management planning

approaches.






Contents

Why Think about Waste

Rethinking Waste

Principles and Elements of an SWMP

Developing an SWMP

Sample Plans, Processes, and Projects

Summary and Resources

Zero Waste France: CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia




https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logos_ZW-web.jpg



Why Think about Waste?






Waste Is an Ever-Increasing Problem

The World Bank has calculated that the rate at which individuals

and communities generate waste will increase from 1.2 to 1.42

kg per person per day between 2010 and 2025, and that the

amount of solid waste globally will grow from the current 1.3

billion tonnes per year to approximately 2.2 billion tonnes per

year. The same analysis predicts that solid waste management

costs will increase from $205.4 billion in 2010 to about $375.5

billion in 2025 globally.

At the same time, worldwide population is rapidly urbanizing,

which means that this increased amount of solid waste will

become more and more concentrated in urban centers. This in

turn implies that municipalities will face steadily increasing costs

and burdens related to managing solid waste in the near future

if the issue is not addressed effectively.

For more information from the World Bank, see their document

“What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management.”




http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBANDEVELOPMENT/Resources/336387-1334852610766/What_a_Waste2012_Final.pdf



Waste Is a Local Problem

Although much of the new waste will be

generated by developing countries, some

sources cite New York City as the most waste-

generating city on the planet and the U.S. as

the world’s biggest producer of trash in absolute

terms, generating 624,700 metric tonnes per

day in 2011. This is 2.58 kg per capita, twice the

international average noted in the previous slide

and considerably more than many other rich

countries. In comparison, Japan generates 1.71

kg per capita, and the UK and France generate

1.79 kg and 1.92 kg per capita respectively.

The World Bank has also concluded that the

higher the income level and rate of

urbanization, the greater the amount of solid

waste that is produced.

Alex Marshall: CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mixed_municipal_waste.JPG




We are virtually surrounded by waste.

In addition to roadsides, beaches, and alleys, there is

even plastic waste in the Mariana Trench, the deepest

part of the Pacific Ocean. There is also an estimated

2,500 tons of space waste on the moon, and thousands

of articles of waste circling the planet.

We are also drowning in waste.

Perhaps the most visible icon of waste is the 1.4 billion

pounds of plastic that enter the oceans annually. This

type of waste affects 247 species and creates dead

zones in the ocean where algae’s consumption of oxygen

leaves little supply available to marine life, making these

areas uninhabitable. Floating debris and debris on

beaches also entangles and drowns marine life.






Waste Affects Air Quality and Climate

All products have an associated generation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Some emissions are upstream in the manufacturing process, and many are

downstream as a result of disposal. Two kinds of emissions can be created in

disposal: burning of waste generates CO2, and landfills release methane, which has

approximately twenty times the global warming potential of CO2. Recycling can reduce

GHG emissions by a factor of two to six by avoiding the energy and resource

extraction required for making new products and reducing waste generation.

According to the EPA, “landfills were the third largest human-made source of methane

in the United States in 2016, accounting for 14.1% of all GHG emitted.”

• Each kg of garbage produces 2.1 kg (4.6 lb) of CO2

• Each kg recycled vs. landfilled saves 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) of CO2

• Each kg composted vs. landfilled saves 1.3 kg (2.8 lb) of CO2






Waste Management Affects Land Use and Community Planning

Landfills, tire dumps, scrap yards, recycling facilities, incinerators,

community composting yards—these facilities take up a

considerable amount of land and have varying effects on

community behavior. Locating them where they can benefit

community processes or where they will avoid degrading

community quality of life is part of the planning process.

Not only do these large land users significantly affect the options

for community layout and contribute to its sprawl, they also affect

the health, safety, comfort, and property values of those close by.

They can render adjacent properties undesirable, unusable, or

dangerous to use due to toxic odors, dust, noise, and

contamination of the water table.

Selecting waste management options that do not rely on large land

assemblies can lead to a more compact community form, allow for

greater flexibility in community planning, and control toxic

emissions and pollution.






Waste Management Can Save Energy and Space

Aluminum: Recycling of aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum

from its virgin source. One ton of recycled aluminum saves 14,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy, 40 barrels of oil, 238

million Btus of energy, and 10 cubic yards of landfill space.

Newsprint: One ton of recycled newsprint saves 601 kWh of energy, 1.7 barrels of oil (71 gallons), 10.2 million Btus of

energy, 60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4.6 cubic yards of landfill space.

Office Paper: One ton of recycled office paper saves 4,100 kWh of energy, 9 barrels of oil, 54 million Btus of energy,

60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7,000 gallons of water, and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

Plastic: One ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 kWh of energy, 16.3 barrels of oil, 98 million Btus of energy, and 30

cubic yards of landfill space.

Steel: One ton of recycled steel saves 642 kWh of energy, 1.8 barrels of oil, 10.9 million Btus of energy, and 4 cubic

yards of landfill space.

Glass: One ton of recycled glass saves 42 kWh of energy, 0.12 barrels of oil (5 gallons), 714,000 Btus of energy, 7.5

pounds of air pollutants from being released, and 2 cubic yards of landfill space. Over 30% of the raw material used in

glass production now comes from recycled glass.






Waste Management Can Inform Building Design

Buildings are sometimes designed to use recycled materials (such as

glass or plastic bottles, wood structural elements and cladding, plastic

chairs, tires, and shipping containers [upper image]). A good example is

the EcoDom project in Mexico, in which houses are built entirely of

panels made with recycled plastic.

Other projects have used a waste management system as a key design

determinant. The Conservation Co-op in Ottawa, Ontario (lower

images), eliminated floor-by-floor garbage collection and planned for

four recycling rooms on each floor as well as a community composter in

the basement. In this building, it is easier to recycle than to discard, and

recovery rates are improved as a result.

Many high-rise buildings create floor plans to utilize vertical collection

chutes and basement recycling rooms.




https://unreasonable.is/ecodomum-story/



Waste Management Can Affect Community Dynamics

Fifteen recycling houses with full recycling and composting facilities serve the 1,800

inhabitants of Augustenborg, Sweden, who helped design them. The neighborhood

targets collecting 90% of its waste for recycling or reuse.

In the slums of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya, a low-tech, high-temperature, clean emission

waste incinerator/stove was prototyped. Residents bring their trash from the

overcrowded and filthy community to this center and burn it in exchange for time on the

stove to cook food and heat water. Health conditions improve radically with the absence

of trash and with hot water for bathing and better food to eat.

Curitiba, Brazil, implemented a garbage-is-not-garbage program for its slums in 1991.

Streets were impassable for conventional vehicles, so residents bring garbage out of the

area and exchange it for food, education tokens, coupons, and transit tickets, allowing

them to access jobs and other opportunities further away from their homes. The

recycling centers that are part of this system are also employment and training centers.

This article, “Curitiba: An Environmental Showcase,” explains the program further.




https://www.huffingtonpost.com/roberta-brandes-gratz/curitiba_b_3713953.html




Communities worldwide are increasingly adapting and

adopting planning practices that acknowledge community

environmental impacts, long-term community economic

health, resident well-being, and the creation of conditions

and resources that will facilitate future generations to

maintain a lifestyle equal or superior to that of the present

generation. This is usually referred to as sustainable

community planning (SCP).

The adjacent diagram is the most familiar way of illustrating

SCP and suggests that sustainability occurs where

economic, social, and environmental issues overlap and

integrate. Waste and its management is affected by, or

affects, all of those issue areas and must be considered as

a key element in community planning in order to generate

fully sustainable solutions.






Waste Management Relates to All SCP Principles

Complete, Livable Communities: Unmanaged waste makes a community unlivable.

Environmental Protection: Improper waste disposal can contaminate the environment.

Energy and Emissions Reduction: Waste management can require or create considerable energy and can generate

significant greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Green, Efficient Resources: Excessive consumption leading to waste is an inefficient use of natural resources. Using

waste as a resource can reduce natural resource depletion.

Enhanced Economic Performance: Waste management can be a huge cost burden for communities, but it can also

create employment and revenue.

Sustainable Community Management and Public Education: Waste, water, and energy management are integrated

and must form part of every sustainable community plan.






Waste in a Community-as-System Design

Sustainable communities are now frequently

considered as systems where every building and

infrastructure component adopts (a) specific

role(s) in terms of energy creation and sharing,

food production, water treatment, and waste

management. To be an effective participant in

any aspect of community or building design,

each designer must become familiar with the

issues being addressed by every other designer

and the tools they are using to address them.

In a community as a system, the by-products

(waste) from one function could/should become

the resource for another in a manner that

somewhat replicates natural systems. This is

sometimes referred to as closing the loop or

circular design.

See Kalundborg symbiosis later on in this course.







The circular approach is exemplified by the recently created Fab City

Global Initiative, an international initiative that strives to develop

locally productive and globally connected self-sufficient cities. The

initiative describes cities as currently being linear trash machines,

and it partners with numerous cities and labs to develop circular

design and production models. They challenge cities to produce

everything they consume by 2054. This infers that all resources

must be local and reusable.

One example of the circular approach is a 3D printed bike frame

made with a thermoplastic embedded with carbon fiber that makes

the bike last longer, and if or when the bike reaches the end of its

life, the material can be reused by basically grinding it up and using

it to reprint something else. The bike can be made right in the shop

upon demand. There are already many products, including

structures, that have been produced by 3D printing. This article,

“Netherlands to Build World’s First Habitable 3D Printed Houses,”

describes some 3D printed buildings being built in the Netherlands.




https://fab.city/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jun/06/netherlands-to-build-worlds-first-habitable-3d-printed-houses



Recap and Review

Waste is an increasing and continuing problem because of the linear way we design and use the things we

make and build. Our waste is impacting our health and the health of our environment. It uses the finite

resources of the planet in an impractical manner.

Give some thought to the following review questions before moving on to the answers on the next slide:

❑ Describe one way waste management impacts community design.

❑ What waste management solution exchanges garbage collection by residents for community services?

?






Recap and Review

❑ In planned communities, street widths have to be designed to accommodate garbage collection vehicles.

This results in wider streets with large turning radii.

❑ The initiatives in Curitiba, Brazil, and Nairobi, Kenya, offer services to the community in exchange for

residents bringing garbage to a central location. These solutions clean neighborhoods without municipal

garbage collection, improving the health of the community and its land and water, while providing needed

social services.

A






Rethinking Waste

Image courtesy of Fab City Global Initiative, Tomas Diez and Mariana Quintero

+CO2

+CO2

+CO2

months’ or years’ process






Rethinking Waste and Waste Management

There is no waste in nature; it is entirely manmade. This

image of a “birth stump” symbolizes that fact. Man has

discarded the stump as waste, but nature has adopted it as a

resource to grow a replacement tree. In this case the “waste”

has been left in its natural state, but in most cases waste is a

manmade combination of elements that cannot be readily

assimilated in this manner.

The fact that waste is created only by man infers that it can

and must be managed by man.

The most effective waste management strategies begin by

looking at what might have been previously thought of as

something to be disposed of (waste) as a resource or

opportunity instead. Once all the opportunities are extracted,

then and only then is disposal considered as an option.






Waste in Waiting

Lyzadanger: CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fredmeyer_edit_1.jpg



Rethinking Waste Begins with Rethinking Design

Every package and product in the previous slide, as well as the shelves they

sit on and the building they are in, will become waste at some point unless

they have been designed to be reused, reconfigured, or reconstituted into

other products, or to decompose naturally.

There are a number of corporate and individual initiatives that are exploring

more sustainable design directions, especially in relation to packaging and

plastics.

• The Sustainable Packaging Coalition® offers courses and information

about sustainable packaging and composting. Numerous major firms have

taken their courses.

• Adidas with Parley has manufactured 1 million shoes with ocean plastics.

• Coca-Cola has launched a program called “World Without Waste” to

collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells globally by

2030.

• Ecovative has created mushroom root-based packaging, which will be

tested by IKEA.




https://sustainablepackaging.org/

https://www.adidas.ca/en/parley

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/world-without-waste

https://www.ecovativedesign.com/



Rethinking Construction Waste

While single-use plastic is a significant and growing issue, it is important to

remember that although it is a major* and highly visible part of the waste stream, all

sectors need to be addressed simultaneously.

The EPA estimated that 534 million tons of construction and demolition waste were

generated in the U.S. in 2014 and that 90% of this was demolition waste. This was

double the amount of municipal solid waste. Research indicates that 75% of

construction waste has a residual value but, as of 2013, only 16% of it is recycled.

Certain sources cite the construction sector as the largest contributor to the solid

waste stream, and this sector continues to grow. The worldwide generation of solid

construction waste may double to as much as 2.2 billion tons by 2015 according to

a report by Transparency Market Research.

Clearly, if the construction industry were to rethink how it designs, constructs, and

deconstructs, it would have major positive impact on solid waste management.

*Estimates of plastic waste vary considerably from 5% to 15% of the solid waste stream, while construction

waste was estimated at 27% (in Canada).






Rethinking Waste from Existing Buildings

Think of existing buildings as building material resource banks.

Portland, Oregon, is the first city in the U.S. to implement an

ordinance that requires “demolition” of houses and duplexes that

are either built earlier than 1916 or designated historic to be fully

deconstructed instead. This ensures that materials from these

buildings are diverted for reuse instead of crushed and landfilled.

Other examples of recovering and reusing waste from existing

buildings will be examined later in this course.






Construction Waste Elimination Example

Mapleton Crescent, a 27-story tower in London, England, was constructed with modules

prefabricated off-site. Each module arrived complete with plaster, paint, windows, doors,

wiring, plumbing, bathrooms, and tiles, and was lifted into place at the rate of one complete

story every day.

These were structural modules that supported one another without additional structure and

that were also connected to a slip-formed concrete core. According to the developers, this

approach required 60% fewer truck journeys than conventional construction and produced

90% less waste. In addition, this allowed the development of a very small, irregularly

shaped site, which otherwise would be considered unbuildable.

Off-site modular construction, as espoused by the Modular Building Institute, provides an

effective technique to reduce overall waste on a project, while providing a more

environmentally sustainable building solution and creating a healthier and safer

environment.




http://www.modular.org/



Rethinking Waste: Going Beyond Recycling

The recycling logo and the three Rs represent the current approach to

waste management in many, if not most, communities. Recycling

programs have a widely varying rate of success. A 2016 “State of

Curbside Report” by the Recycling Partnership analyzes the factors

affecting success or failure. It notes that single-family homes (in the

U.S.) generate between 800 and 1,000 pounds of recyclable

packaging per year with a recovery of only 357 pounds per household

per year. This is a recovery rate of just 35%–45%.

Given that solid waste has been predicted to increase in volume, cost,

and concentration, it becomes evident that recycling programs need

to be improved as well as enhanced and/or replaced with other waste

management approaches.

The following slides will explore some of the emerging approaches

that do this. While they differ in scope and intent, they also have a

number of common themes that can inform local action.




https://recyclingpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/state-of-recycling-report-Jan2017.pdf



Rethinking Waste: The Five (or Seven) Rs

There are a number of variations of the five Rs and some jurisdictions even list seven Rs.

• reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, residual management (disposal) or

• refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle, or

• refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot (compost). This set is the five Rs for zero waste.

The Rs represent the simplest next-step approach, which can encourage personal behavioral changes, but they do not

address the core issues related to waste creation and product redesign.






Rethinking Waste: The AIR Strategy

Parley for the Oceans has an approach to solutions called the

Parley AIR Strategy, which is Avoid. Intercept. Redesign.

Parley is a nongovernmental organization (NGO), which as

described by the UN Ocean Conference, “addresses the global

marine plastic pollution crisis through creativity, collaboration,

and eco-innovation. It generates support and then encourages

collaboration among providers of solutions to this problem.

Parley AIR is well on its way to prevent and significantly reduce

plastics pollution by 2025.”

Their strategy focuses on existing ocean plastics but also

tackles the next step of product (re)design. In this case,

products were redesigned to use plastics that had already been

created and discarded and that were then recovered from

beaches and the ocean.






Rethinking Waste: Zero Waste

The Zero Waste International Alliance defines zero waste as:

a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient, and visionary, to guide people

in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural

cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources

for others.

They go on to say:

Zero waste means designing and managing products and processes

to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and

materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them.

Implementing zero waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air

that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.“Zero Waste begins when we realize that

there is no ‘away’ into which we can throw

what we call our waste.”

-- G. Ananthpadmanabhan, former executive

director, Greenpeace India






Rethinking Waste: Zero Waste Challenge

Zero waste challenges are often issued in conjunction with

other events such as Earth Day. The intent is to challenge

residents of a community to try a zero waste lifestyle for a

short period (a month, week, or even just a day) in order to

familiarize themselves with the various approaches they can

use to work towards this goal. By using a short time frame, it

is hoped many will try and at least some will then adopt the

lifestyle in the long term.

Phoenix, for example, has held a Zero Waste Open since

2013 in conjunction with a PGA golf tournament. They boast

that in seven days with 600,000 fans, there is no waste at

the event. In parallel to this event, a home edition is also

held.

Challenges such as the Metro Vancouver Zero Waste

Challenge are also often issued at the full community scale

and for the long term.

Challenge by Nick Youngson: CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images




http://www.nyphotographic.com/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

http://alphastockimages.com/



Rethinking Waste: Waste Networks

The Zero Waste Network

provides workshops, case

studies, tools, and information

that can be used to develop

personal or community programs.

The Resource Exchange

Network for Eliminating Waste

(RENEW) is a material exchange

program that facilitates the

exchange of materials between

communities in Arkansas, New

Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana,

and Texas. Materials that are

considered as waste in one place

could become a resource for

another.






Rethinking Waste: Waste to Energy

Converting waste into energy is a well-established practice that can

take various forms and operate at various scales.

At a landfill near Vancouver, Canada, methane is collected through a

series of pipes and delivered to cogenerators in a large greenhouse 2

km away. The greenhouse uses only the heat, so the 5.6 MW of

electricity generated is used to power about 3,000 homes in the area.

The 100,000 GJ/year of heat generated replaces the natural gas

previously burned for heating the tomato greenhouses.

The environmental benefit of this operation is equivalent to removing

the greenhouse gas emissions of 45,000 cars per year.

Everyone enjoyed some financial benefit as well: the greenhouse

lowered its heating costs, the municipalities received increased taxes,

the homeowners had lower power bills, and the company delivering the

services made a profit.






Waste-to-Energy Example

As noted on their own website:

The Wheelabrator Baltimore waste-to-energy facility uses up to 2,250

tons of postrecycled everyday waste from Baltimore area homes and

businesses as a local sustainable fuel to generate as much as 64 MW

of clean, renewable electricity for sale to the local utility—the

equivalent of supplying the electrical needs of 40,000 Maryland

homes as well as its own operations.

In addition to providing the power for Baltimore area homes, the plant

also provides steam to the downtown district heating loop, which

serves more than 230 businesses including the M&T Bank Stadium. It

uses local waste as fuel to create a local energy ecosystem that

recycles metals, provides power, reduces the need for landfill, and

lowers CO2 emissions.

Mike MC Caffery: CC BY SA-2.0 via Wikimedia




https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baltimoresmoke.jpg



Rethinking Waste: Waste to Energy

Although it produces about the same amount of

waste per capita as other Europeans, only 1% of

household waste in Sweden goes to landfills.

Starting in 1985, Sweden has built 32 waste-to-

energy (WTE) plants that currently incinerate about

half of this waste or about two million tons per year.

Since that time, the country has also reduced heavy

metal emissions by 99%, even though they now

incinerate three times more waste today than in

1985.

These plants generate enough energy to serve

almost a million homes with heating and over a

quarter of a million homes with electricity.

In 2015, Sweden imported 2.3 million tonnes of

waste from, among others, Norway, the UK, and

Ireland in order to have enough to burn.






Rethinking Waste: Waste as Resource

There are many ways that waste can be used as a resource for new

products or processes. Recycled concrete aggregate alone can be

reused in many construction projects, as well as in:

• water purification

• sandpaper

• crayons

• plastics

• chewing gum

• paper

• sugar

• rubber

• fertilizers

• glass, and

• ceramics.






Rethinking Waste: Cradle to Cradle Design

Cradle to Cradle® * (Remaking the Way We Make Things) “is an

approach for designing intelligent products, processes, and

systems, which takes into account the entire life cycle of the

product, optimizing material health, recyclability, and

renewability.”

It was intended to encourage the redesign of products and

ingredients to become nutrients, and to enable old products to

become the raw material for new goods and services.

Some building products emanating from their registration program

include insulation made from mushroom roots and bricks grown

from bacteria.*This concept was introduced in 2002 and is accredited to architect William McDonough

and chemist Michael Braungart.

This approach now embraces building design in the form of the ICEhouse™ (Innovation for the Circular Economy house)

in Davos, Switzerland, and Project Legacy for Universidad EAN in Bogota, Colombia. ICEhouse™ is a structure that can

be deconstructed and then reconstructed or, as an alternative, its components can be repeatedly remanufactured as new

products for other projects.

Zhiying Lim: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Biological_and_technical_nutrients_(C2C).jpg



Rethinking Waste: Other Approaches

• Industrial ecology is industrial in that it focuses on product design and

manufacturing processes, and ecological in that it looks to nonhuman

ecosystems as models for industrial processes and places human ecological

activity in the context of the larger ecosystems that support it.

• Natural capitalism is a way of thinking that assigns a value to natural elements

and proper stewardship and thus integrates business and environmental

concerns in a model where businesses can profitably satisfy their customers’

needs while helping to solve environmental problems all at the same time.

• Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to

human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The

Biomimicry Institute offers more information on this topic.

As is evident, there are numerous overlaps and common themes in these various

approaches.




http://planet.botany.uwc.ac.za/nisl/ESS/Documents/Industrial_Ecology_Overview.pdf

http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/natcap/

https://biomimicry.org/what-is-biomimicry/



Rethinking Waste: The Circular Economy

The circular economy is the most

comprehensive approach to rethinking waste,

and it synthesizes all the schools of thought

highlighted in the previous slides.

As a systemic shift in economic patterns and

design philosophy, it can only be fully

implemented in stages over an extended time

period. In the interim, the approaches,

practices, and thought patterns such as zero

waste, the AIR strategy, and Cradle to Cradle®

design can be implemented and contribute to

the full systemic shift.

Diagram courtesy of Ellen MacArthur Foundation




https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/interactive-diagram



Rethinking Waste: The Circular Economy

A circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design. It

relies on system-wide innovation and aims to redefine products

(including building materials) and services to design waste out,

while minimizing negative impacts.

The model is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy

sources, and the model builds economic, natural, and social

capital. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the

consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the

system. It is based on three principles:

1. design out waste and pollution

2. keep products and materials in use

3. regenerate natural systems

Optional reading: The Circular Economy Overview will explain the concept and the carrot.




https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/overview/concept



Rethinking Waste: Circular Design

The Circular Design Guide, which was developed in collaboration

with IDEO, an international innovation and design firm, provides

further insight and specifics on how design (and planning)

processes can be directed towards the circular model. It provides

a step-by-step framework with which an organization or

community can adopt the circular design approach.

It discusses new tools such as artificial intelligence, the internet

of things, and biomimicry and suggests that design ambitions are

limited only by our imagination.

The Sustainability Guide from EcoDesign Circle in Europe also

provides good examples of how to use design to achieve a

sustainable and circular business model as well as positive social

development. It explores circular design, life cycle thinking, cradle

to cradle, biomimicry, and a whole system approaches.

Optional reading: The Circular Design Guide, EU Sustainability GuideCS Odessa: CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons




https://www.circulardesignguide.com/methods

https://sustainabilityguide.eu/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circular-Arrows-Diagram-BPM-Life-Cycle.png



Rethinking Waste: Industrial Symbiosis

The Journal of Industrial Ecology in 2012 defined industrial symbiosis

as:

a process which engages diverse organisations in a network to

foster eco-innovation and long-term culture change. Creating and

sharing knowledge through the network yields mutually profitable

transactions for novel sourcing of required inputs, value-added

destinations for non-product outputs, and improved business and

technical processes.

International Synergies adds:

The principle behind industrial symbiosis is quite simple; instead of

being thrown away or destroyed, surplus resources generated by an

industrial process are captured then redirected for use as a “new”

input into another process by one or more other companies,

providing a mutual benefit or symbiosis…Industrial symbiosis

challenges the business world to operate in the same way as the

natural eco-system where everything has a place and function, and

nothing goes to waste.

Example of industrial symbiosis: waste steam from

a waste incinerator is piped to an ethanol plant where it

is used as an input to their production process.

5451: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IndustrialSymbiosisWasteHeatExchange.png



Industrial Symbiosis Example

In 1972, Kalundborg (pop 20,000),

Denmark, began the development of

the first (and still best-known) example

of a community-scale symbiosis

network of industrial processes that

use each other’s waste products and

that recapture surplus energy outputs

from one another’s processes.

As illustrated in the accompanying

diagram, more than 30 exchanges of

water, energy, and other by-products

take place between the municipality

and eight participating companies.

Kalundborg is also a modern royal

borough with old half-timbered

structures.






Rethinking Waste: Community as a Symbiotic System

A variety of by-products such as steam, ash, gas,

heat, and sludge that can be physically

transported from one company to another are

bought and sold by these private and public

companies in a closed cycle.

The network is essentially an on-the-ground

example of a circular economy.

The Kalundborg Symbiosis is a private association

run by a board made up of members of the

companies involved and representatives from the

municipality.

Bob Collowan: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons




http://www.symbiosis.dk/en/


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asn%C3%A6sv%C3%A6rket_(Kalundborg,_Denmark).JPG



Recap and Review

Current thinking about what has previously been considered waste ranges from restructuring the economy to

eliminate waste altogether, to redesigning products in a manner that facilitates their reuse or natural

degradation, to improving the means of reusing products as new products or energy. In essence, waste is

increasingly being considered a resource.


❑ Why is controlling/reducing/eliminating construction and demolition waste as important as reducing plastic

waste?

❑ Of the various ways of rethinking waste outlined in this chapter, which do you think would be considered

the most comprehensive and why?

?






❑ Construction and demolition waste comprises a greater percentage of the waste stream by mass than

plastic, and its value as a usable material is not currently recaptured to a sufficient degree.

❑ The circular economy is the most comprehensive approach since it synthesizes all the schools of thought

outlined in the previous chapter and also relies on system-wide innovation as opposed to just individual

actions and projects.

A






Principles and Elements of an SWMP

Oregon Convention Center: CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr




https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonconventioncenter/34311935562/in/photostream/



Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) Principles

AThis diagram illustrates the prioritization of the

principles of an SWMP. Principles are used to

help decide which specific elements or parts of

a plan should be included. Principles are

relevant to all plans but elements are chosen* to

suit their specific context. Some plan elements

will be for the short term and others for the long

term. Target dates for plan element review

should be incorporated in an SWMP.

*The EPA has developed a Waste Reduction Model tool called

WARM, which helps determine the GHG impacts of various

SWM options. This type of tool helps communities prioritize and

select their elements by supplying hard data about the impact of

choices.

Prevention/Reduction

Usage/Diversion

Disposal

Rethink/Redesign




https://www.epa.gov/warm/basic-information-about-waste-reduction-model-warm



SWMP Principles

The top section of this upside-down pyramid demonstrates by its size that rethinking/redesigning is the most important

and effective principle for an SWMP. Although redesigning products and systems is perhaps the most effective

principle, it is a long-term approach and must be combined with shorter-term actions and strategies.

Reducing waste is the second most effective principle of SWMP that should be utilized. Waste prevention and reduction

is well within the reach of organizations, municipalities, and individuals and because it is quantifiable, it can be quite

effective. Prevention can be accomplished by redesign as well as by phasing out the use of certain products and

processes and by altering behaviors.

Rethink/Redesign

Prevention/Reduction






SWMP Principles: Prevention/Reduction

Consider a life cycle impact assessment approach to

evaluating element options. For example, evaluate all the

resources used and waste created for the life cycle of

manufacturing, use, and disposal of a product.

Consider implementing extended producer responsibility

where the producers must take responsibility for their

products, giving them a financial incentive to reduce waste

throughout the product life cycle.

Recognize waste as a resource and/or opportunity.

NIST: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Life_Cycle_Thinking_Product_System.jpg



SWMP Principles: Usage/Diversion

Create separate handling systems for hazardous wastes. Hazardous wastes

include but are not limited to oils, flammables, acids, toxics, pesticides, batteries,

and pharmaceuticals.

Utilize material exchange networks (or create one), like RENEW from Texas, and

establish special drop-off centers or drop-off days for pollutants (paint cans,

batteries, e-waste, etc.).

Disposal options should include identification and analysis of energy recovery

potential and local safe disposal options.

Deal with waste close to the source of generation in order to make diversion

activities simpler and affordable. Dealing with waste close to home or at home

avoids transportation, which means lower GHG emissions and costs.




https://www.tceq.texas.gov/p2/recycle/renew



SWMP Principles

Diverting waste (from landfill) and/or finding ways to use it is based on the assumption that waste has been or will be

created. Diversion strategies are more readily implemented than prevention strategies, and thus any plan should

include them. Diversion strategies can be accompanied by targets and termination dates for these shorter-term actions.

Examples of diversion approaches are given in later slides.

There still is a need for a small amount of disposal, but this should always be considered a last-resort approach that

does not reduce waste but merely transfers problems from one place to another. Plans should target landfill reductions

and/or eliminations.

Usage/Diversion

Disposal






SWMP Principles

Create an open, transparent, and inclusive SWMP. Decision-making must be open and transparent when planning

and cooperating (creating buy-in) with different groups (government, manufacturers, designers, retailers, users, public,

environmental groups, waste handling industry).

Establish targets or goals for waste management that are easy to measure: amount of waste diverted from landfill;

percentage of households participating in collection or home composting programs; number of offices with paper

recycling programs.

Develop a plan to measure, review, and report results. Choose indicators that meet the “SMART” (specific,

measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) criteria.

Educate, engage, and consult with the public. A campaign to educate the broader public on waste management goals

and encourage broad participation is an important part of achieving waste targets.

Access resources from different levels of government, international associations, environmental groups, and industry

associations (e.g., design approaches, funding, information and program design, implementation support) and monitor

their evolution.






SWMP Principles

The previous slides have highlighted a number of the major

guiding principles or ideas behind an SWMP that are used to

determine which more specific elements or parts of a plan

should be included. As noted, these principles can apply to all

plans.

The following slides will highlight some of the potential plan

elements. Elements are more specific and are selected

according to local context, their potential effectiveness, and

their ease and cost of implementation. Their inclusion in an

SWMP will direct the community towards shorter-term targets

while longer-term goals are being pursued.

Readily identifiable and measurable interim results help

maintain momentum in any plan execution.






Elements of an SWMP

Redesign Element

Product redesign is not normally the responsibility of a municipality, but

the redesign of an SWM process is. Municipal officials can redesign

their collection and separation approaches and dictate the products

used by the municipality and its institutions.

In a similar manner, the design of buildings and infrastructure using

cradle-to-cradle principles could also be encouraged, rewarded, and/or

mandated.

Land use planning can identify those industrial processes that could be

encouraged to locate in a community in order to facilitate the creation

and functionality of an eco-industrial network (industrial symbiosis).

Waste collection vacuum tubes, which separate waste at

source and capture methane for reuse, Malmo, Sweden






Elements of an SWMP

Redesign Element

As noted previously, waste reduction starts

upstream with the elimination of waste, most

effectively through the redesign of products to

ensure they can be reused or degrade naturally.

Packaging waste, which can represent up to 40%

of the waste stream, can be reduced through

changes in design and production, by using less

material for the same product, with reusable

packaging (boxes, pallets, and packaging

returned to the supplier), by the use of inflated

and sealed (biodegradable) plastic bags instead

of a large volume of packaging materials, by

packaging in bulk, by encouraging or mandating

the use of personal bags and containers, and by

avoiding the use of multimaterials (mixed plastics,

metals, and paper) that make reuse and recycling

more difficult.

Fully biodegradable packing made from mushroom rootsSteven Nock: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Material_by_Ecovative.jpg



Elements of an SWMP

Designing Out Construction Waste Element

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

in the UK has developed guidelines, tutorials, and tools

that assist with designing out waste in buildings. The

program is accompanied by a comprehensive resource

database that focuses on three priority areas: food and

drink, clothing and textiles, and electricals and

electronics.

Their redesign principles are:

• design for reuse and recovery

• design for off-site construction

• design for materials optimization

• design for waste-efficient procurement, and

• design for deconstruction and flexibility.

Snowmanradio: GNU Free Documentation via Wikimedia




http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/construction-designers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demolition_dust_coventry_14n07.jpg



Elements of an SWMP

Prevention Element

Create an online purchasing guide that asks questions and provides tips such as:

• Is your purchase necessary? Can the need be met in another way? If the product is a consumable item, can the

consumption be reduced?

• Can the item be purchased used? Can it be shared? (See Thingery on the next slide.) Can it be rented?

• Choose a durable or longer-life product: Confirm if there is a nondisposable option for a disposable product

(evaluate the total costs of disposable products). Ask suppliers to report the environmental or social benefits of

products and choose products with advantages, and review environmental product certification programs.

• Choose suppliers committed to sustainability: Review corporate environmental policies from suppliers’ websites.

Question suppliers on their specific environmental commitments. Many large and small firms have realized the

benefit of adopting a sustainable approach to their products or services.

• Calculate and publish total costs: Evaluate total cost including purchase, additional cost requirements,

maintenance, energy use, disposal, and administration.

• Reduce transportation and energy impacts: Choose products with minimal transportation distances and that

minimize the use of raw materials and energy.






Sample Prevention/Reduction Project

In Vancouver, a city that is targeting zero waste by 2040, a

not-for-profit entity has created the Thingery, which hosts

an inventory of things in self-service modified shipping

containers. Each Thingery’s inventory depends on what

neighbors donate to it and what they collectively

purchase. Potential inventory items include recreation

equipment, tools, event equipment, and household

appliances. Sharing in this manner is an opportunity to

prevent objects from needlessly going to landfill and to

reduce the amount of goods produced in the first place.

Thingery operates like a local lending library, where for a

one-time $50 membership share and an annual $29 fee,

members get access to hundreds of high-quality tools and

toys that would otherwise have to be bought or rented at

inflated prices. Such a facility could be twinned with fix-it

fairs and facilities.

Image courtesy of Thingery






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Community reuse centers are an appropriate venture for

nonprofit organizations as well as for-profit companies. Reuse

centers will repair and sell a broad range of items that

otherwise would end up in landfill.

Reuse centers (repair, rental, and secondhand shops) reduce

waste while creating local jobs and training, and provide a

service, often to lower-income households.

Some systems charge a nominal amount and use revenue for

other programs, while others are free and operate on a straight

honor system donation/exchange approach.

Space requirements for the latter are usually small and can be

designed into many types of residential and community

buildings and public spaces.






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Habitat for Humanity ReStores are perhaps one of

the more familiar reuse centers. Initially, they

concentrated on recycling used construction

material and fitments donated by contractors and

homeowners and sometimes new materials

donated by larger suppliers.

Items are resold to others looking to save money,

and the funds are used to help finance their sweat-

equity building programs around the world.

Currently they handle donated furniture, appliances,

and home accessories and can help with e-waste

as well. Habitat for Humanity Restore Thrift Store, Wallingford, CT. By Mike Mozart: CC BY 2.0 via Flickr





https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/14466499394



Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Fix-It Fairs and Workshops

These events or facilities attempt to repair small items such as toasters,

clothing, and bicycles, provide training for self-repair and maintenance of

household items, and also serve as information venues for related topics

such as recycling and energy conservation.

Water Bottle Refill Stations

London, England, is establishing a public network of water bottle refill stations

in order to reduce the need for single-use plastic bottles. Refill stations are

readily available and can be attached to existing water fountains, and are

already in place in many locations such as national parks (lower image).

Placing them in venues such as schools, athletic facilities, and offices can

reduce the need for bottled water and help phase out the need for bottles.

Austin Willhoit: Public domain via Joint Base Elmendorf,

Richardson, Alaska




https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/23/new-fountains-and-bottle-refill-points-to-tackle-londons-plastic-waste?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/

http://www.jber.jb.mil/News/Articles/Article/771760/u-fix-it-shop-turns-laymen-into-handymen/



Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Assign a Value to Waste

The Ontario Beer Store has a system where consumers pay a

refundable deposit at the time of purchase, which is refunded when

the empty container is returned to The Beer Store. This has led to a

96% return rate of all beer packaging (97% bottle recovery). Bottles

are reused an average of 15 times. This diverts 550,000 tonnes a

year from landfill and $60,000,000 a year in disposal and diversion

costs. The program was so successful, it was extended to include all

liquor bottles from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario with similar

results.

Many recycling centers also pay for waste, and this facilitates

increased collection by the informal recycling sector. A number of

jurisdictions, especially in developing countries or impoverished

areas, integrate the contribution of this sector into their SWM

process.






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Assign a Value to Waste

Norway recycles 97% of its plastic drink bottles.

• Consumers pay a deposit that is returned at the store where the

bottles were purchased. Some stores use machines that crush

the bottles and issue a store credit (image). Stores report

increased overall traffic and sales as a result.

• The store receives a fee for handling the bottles.

• The manufacturers receive a tax credit in proportion to the

amount of recycled material they use.

• Some claim that a portion of the plastic has been used 50 times.

Numerous jurisdictions are either already using or intending to use

similar programs and devices.

Mattes: Public domain via Wikimedia





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aldi-Pfandr%C3%BCckgabeautomat.JPG



Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Curbside Recycling

Curbside recycling of source-separated material can be a very effective diversion

system. Curbside collection is a common system in many countries for collecting

recyclables from single-family households. In most cases, the householder is

responsible for cleaning and separating the recyclables and setting them out on

collection day; in some cases, specialized trucks sort the materials even further.

Special containers or bags are usually provided for the collection. The material is

collected curbside and taken to an MRF (municipal recycling facility) where the

material is further separated into as many as 15 to 20 categories and baled for

shipping and sales to the secondary materials market.

Each community will have its own version of what it can recycle, what is

considered waste, and how each is handled.






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Depot Recycling

Depot recycling can be a low-cost collection system

but may have limited recovery of recyclables. Depots

can be central facilities where people or businesses

bring recyclables.

These cost less to operate than a curbside collection

system, but are less effective because consumers

must make additional efforts to deliver waste to a

depot. Depots can work well with specific materials

where a deposit provides a financial incentive to return

the product.

Some communities have mobile units that can be

moved to various events and locations.






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Household Composting

Organic materials represent about 40% or more of the residential waste stream. Communities will

have specific industries and retailers that also have significant organic waste. Separating organic

material at the source before it becomes contaminated with undesirable materials is key to the

success of this approach.

In landfills, organic material degrades into a liquid called leachate that can extract and carry other

toxins in the waste stream and pollute groundwater. It will also generate methane, a potent

greenhouse gas under anaerobic conditions (no oxygen).

Composting avoids the problems of disposing of organics while creating a beneficial material

(compost) that is an important amendment to any agricultural operation. Composting is an excellent

example of man mimicking nature and treating waste as a resource.






Elements of an SWMP

Diversion Element

Community Composting

Organic materials from residential and commercial

facilities can be composted in bulk in central facilities.

These facilities can ensure that an optimal mix of green

waste (high nitrogen content) and brown waste (high

carbon content) is created. Blending in high carbon

sources such as leaves and yard waste can be critical to

success.

Community composting often utilizes regularly turned rows

of mixed organic material (windrows), but in a hot and dry

climate, the desired humidity content may not be

achievable in this manner. In that case, composting can

take place in a large, enclosed center or smaller, modular

containers. While this is more expensive, it makes it easier

to control the composting operation and achieve a usable

product.

Gossipguy: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia





https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Compost_heap.jpg



Elements of an SWMP

Construction Waste Diversion Element

Implement design and construction approaches such

as optimal value engineering or off-site factory

fabrication, which both maximize material usage and

minimize offcuts.

Utilize and reward construction contracts that specify

how construction waste must be disposed of by

workers on-site. This can encourage the contractor to

reduce waste during the construction process.

Make contracts with waste haulers to have recycling

bins on-site and require waste (e.g., wood, metal,

gypsum wallboard, cardboard, plastic, hazardous

materials) to be separated at the construction site. If

separation on-site isn’t possible, some waste hauling

contractors also sort and recover recyclables from

waste after it is removed from the site.






Construction Waste Diversion Example

Require building sites to provide space

(labeled bins) for sorting of materials. Sites

involving salvage, deconstruction, or

demolition require space for salvaged

materials and hard material crushing, and a

strategy for moving/reusing salvaged

materials.

Benny Farm in Montreal salvaged brick

from one building and used it to reclad

another. The project also recycled old

radiators in a new district geothermal

heating system and reused old wooden

studs. (See following slide.)




http://www.loeuf.com/en/projects/benny-farm-green-energy-benny-farm/



Elements of an SWMP

Construction Waste Diversion Element

These images show brick recovery and cleaned, packaged, and labeled bricks ready for reuse on-site, temporary

storage for reusable studs, and old radiators ready for refurbishment and reuse in the new heating system.






SWMP Elements

Disposal Element

Landfill has been (and still is) a common disposal

method, but in the future it should be considered a

last-resort option. Areas of concern include pollution

of groundwater, land availability, allowing untreated

toxic and hazardous waste, and methane emissions.

Feasible landfill sites are becoming increasingly

difficult to identify.

Contemporary landfills utilize liners, impermeable

soil (clay) and holding ponds to control leachate,

daily covering to control vermin and blowing dust

and debris, and landfill gas collection to control and

utilize methane. Methane is important to manage at

landfills because it can explode.






Recap and Review

There are certain guiding principles common to all plans that can be used to identify which specific elements

a particular plan should incorporate. Some principles will spawn more effective elements than others, and

they should be identified and prioritized. Plans should balance long- and short-term elements.


❑ Why is disposal (especially in landfill) considered to be the least effective principle that an SWMP should

incorporate?

❑ Why is redesigning products and processes considered to be the most effective principle an SWMP

should follow?

?






Recap and Review

❑ Landfill does nothing to reduce the amount of waste or change attitudes towards it. It also generates new

sets of issues that can have negative environmental impacts.

❑ Rethinking product and process design can eliminate the very notion of waste before it is created and

convert that which may have become waste into future resource. Redesign of products can also recover

and convert existing waste into useful products. Rethinking SWM and production processes can have

significant fiscal and environmental benefits.

A






Developing an SWMP






Developing an SWMP

Every planning context is unique, but there are certain commonalities in approach that can be shared. Suggested

planning steps include the following:

1. Understand problem and issues.

2. Identify goals and objectives.

3. Define sources and sectors involved (e.g., government departments, professionals, public, other stakeholders, financial institutions, insurance agencies).

4. Examine waste trends and waste management practices and state-of-the-art case studies (research).

5. Project waste management needs over a planning period.

6. Develop a reduction and diversion strategy (take-back by manufacturer and reduction at source).

7. Develop a cost and financing strategy.

8. Develop implementation timelines.

9. Design a monitoring, measuring, and reporting system.

10. Create a plan review agenda complete with contingencies.

11. Create a public education strategy.

12. Create a public consultation program.

13. Integrate with long-term sustainable community planning (economic, environmental, social).

14. Develop a disposal strategy only if needed.






Developing an SWMP: International (EU) Guidelines

The adjacent list was excerpted from the European Union guidelines,

“Preparing a Waste Management Plan.” The full document can be reviewed

here.

The document provides considerable assistance and insight as to which

elements could become part of a contemporary SWMP. The EU also has a

strategy for plastics in a circular economy, which was released in January 2018.

Much of the EU is pursuing a circular economy model, and the European

Commission has developed a full strategy. The strategy package has a number

of documents outlining current patterns and future targets.

Following the evolution of such significant documents and directives can inform

any local SWMP development.




http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plans/pdf/2012_guidance_note.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plastic_waste.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm



Developing an SWMP: EPA National Strategy

The EPA has also published an SWMP document entitled “U.S. EPA

Sustainable Materials Management Program Strategic Plan.” This plan

describes sustainable materials management (SMM) as follows:

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is an approach to serving

human needs by using/reusing resources productively and sustainably

throughout their life cycles, generally minimizing the amount of materials

involved and all associated environmental impacts.

Program objectives are described in the plan as follows:

1. Decrease the disposal rate, which includes source reduction, reuse,

recycling and prevention.

2. Reduce the environmental impacts of materials across their life cycle.

3. Increase socio-economic benefits.

4. Increase the capacity of state and local governments, communities, and

key stakeholders to adopt and implement SMM policies, practices, and

incentives.






Developing an SWMP: EPA National Strategy

This is a high-level and concise document that

focuses on three strategic areas:

1) the built environment

2) sustainable food management, and

3) sustainable packaging.

For each strategic area, it describes specific action

areas, possible activities, and anticipated national

outcomes by 2022. The adjacent sample taken from

the document is related to the built environment.

Consulting this national strategy while developing a

local SWMP will help ensure that such a plan will be

steered in the correct direction.

Note that the document does not use the word

“waste” in the title and very rarely in the text.

SMM and the Built Environment

Action Area 1: Incorporate life cycle SMM concepts into the built

environment marketplace. Work to influence the building design

marketplace, including architects, engineers, product designers,

educators, and students by working with federal, state, and

community stakeholders to adopt and implement SMM policies,

practices, and incentives that affect designing, building, using,

renovating, demolishing, recycling, or reusing materials in the built

environment.

Anticipated Outcomes by 2022:

Increase safe reuse and recycling of C&D materials.

Increase the safe, beneficial use of industrial by-product materials,

such as coal fly ash and spent foundry sand.

Examples of Possible Activities:

Integrate SMM into an existing life cycle building design competition.

Target large construction or demolition projects for beneficial use or

recycling.






Developing an SWMP: A Regional Guideline

The following few slides provide a synopsis of a current initiative entitled “A

Guide to Solid Waste Management Planning,” which was issued by the

provincial government of British Columbia, Canada, in September 2016.

The guide is a comprehensive, 100-page document that provides guidance

for the research, development, review, and implementation of an integrated

SWMP.

The guide is intended for use by regional districts who are updating or

amending their SWMP and for interested parties engaged in this process.

The guide also suggests that SWMPs be reviewed/updated every decade.

The guide refers to current waste management directions such as the 5 Rs,

the circular economy, and waste-to-energy, and discusses how they can be

integrated into an SWMP.

It is suggested here that in addition to a 5- or 10-year full plan review that

any SWMP be structured to facilitate constant input and modification to suit

quickly evolving SWM and design trends.




https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/waste-management/garbage/swmp.pdf



Developing an SWMP: A Regional Guideline

These are the principles that form the basis for the British Columbia plan:

1. Promote zero waste approaches and support a circular economy.

2. Promote the first three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle).

3. Maximize beneficial use of waste materials and manage residuals appropriately.

4. Support polluter and user-pay approaches and manage incentives to maximize

behavior outcomes.

5. Prevent organics and recyclables from going into the garbage wherever

practical.

6. Collaborate with other regional districts wherever practical.

7. Develop collaborative partnerships with interested parties to achieve regional

targets set in plans.

8. Level the playing field within regions for private and public solid waste management

facilities.

They note that the order the principles are listed in does not suggest the priority of one

over another. The plan does, however, include the adjacent pollution prevention hierarchy

diagram.






Regional Guideline: Process

The document also outlines a four-step planning process and provides considerable detail as to how each step could be

undertaken. Note the importance placed on consultation. The document contains guidance on how this could or should

be done.

Step 1: Initiate the planning process, including setting the scope, notifying interested parties, establishing advisory

committees, and identifying the planning and consultation processes.

Step 2: Set the plan direction, including establishing principles, goals, and targets, gathering background information,

and identifying options for waste management.

Step 3: Evaluate options, including reviewing options for managing all forms of waste, consulting with interested parties

(including the general public), and determining proposed approaches.

Step 4: Prepare and adopt the plan, including submission of the final plan for minister’s approval.

Consultation is not shown as a separate step in the planning process, as it should be undertaken across all steps.






Regional Guideline: Checklists

The adjacent diagram is one of many in the document. This one is

a checklist for step one of the planning process. Detailed

information such as this is valuable to any community striving to

develop its own plan. Consulting with the authors of such

documents may provide insight into what has worked well and

what should be avoided.






Regional Guideline: Five-Year Plan Review

The guide discusses monitoring and review procedures and suggests that a five-year effectiveness review be

conducted. This review could be critical at a time when waste management approaches are evolving quickly. The

review should result in a report that is made publicly available (including online). Items to review/report on may include:

• overview of all programs or actions undertaken in first five years to support the plan goals and targets, including

status (started, in progress, complete) and implementation costs for each

• description and forecasted budget for programs or actions not yet started and status (implementation delayed,

implementation on schedule, implementation cancelled due to circumstances or decisions affecting the need for or

feasibility of undertaking the actions at all)

• five-year trend information for waste disposal per person

• five-year summary of economic development related to plan implementation

• five-year trend of greenhouse gases emitted and avoided (landfill gas capture and reuse, flaring, or waste

diversion)

• summary of any compliance activities taken, spills, leaks, and leachate collected at facilities, and wildlife

incidences over the past five years, and

• any significant changes related to the regional growth strategy or changes to large industry and businesses

operating in the area that might impact the solid waste management system over the next five years.






Regional Guideline: Templates

The guidance document also supplies templates for a

plan, a consultation report, and a certification from

each corporate officer.

Adjacent is the index for the SWMP template.






Regional Guideline: Strategy Options

The document provides a list of waste management strategies that

could be considered as well as the criteria by which each potential

strategy could be assessed for its applicability in a particular context.

It identifies three basic strategy categories:

• informational strategies aimed at changing behavior and

informing decisions

• incentive programs encouraging behavior change through

providing financial and logistical support for beneficial initiatives,

and

• regulatory strategies enforcing limits on waste generation,

expanding environmental obligations, and imposing environmental

criteria on public contracts.

It lists evaluation criteria in four categories: general, environmental,

economic, and social.

This is a sample list from the plan for

resource recovery strategies that could

be considered:

• waste-to-energy facilities

• mixed waste material recovery

facilities (producing recyclables from

the waste stream through the

application of technology)

• production of refuse-derived fuel

• integrated resource recovery, which

includes heat and energy recovery

from organics processing and liquid

waste facilities






Recap and Review

SWMP can take place on multiple levels simultaneously. International and national strategies should be

monitored to ensure local and regional plans are informed by and aligned with them. Utilizing tools provided

by guidelines and other sources helps ensure that every aspect and impact of plan elements are properly

considered.


❑ How does a document such as the EU guidelines “Preparing a Waste Management Plan” help with local

SWMP?

❑ What are some of the benefits of using an SWMP guideline?

?






❑ Documents such as this provide insight into overall SWM trends and directions as well as the elements

that could be part of an SWMP. Following the evolution of such significant documents and directives can

inform and guide any local SWMP development.

❑ A guideline can provide detailed templates, checklists, and procedures that local planners can use to ensure

they have considered all details and have structured a plan that is comprehensive and clear.

A






Sample Plans, Processes, and Projects






Sample SWM Plans

The following slides highlight just a few of the many, more

advanced SWM plans and guidelines being implemented

currently.

When reading these examples, note that these cities (and

others) have developed waste strategies that nest and

integrate various subprograms that operate at various

scales—regional, district, municipal, and personal—and

how each scale has different options that can be deployed

in both the short and long term.

Also note that waste management strategies are linked to

land use planning, energy, and water management

strategies.






NYC: Zero Waste Design Guidelines

New York City has established “Zero Waste

Design Guidelines” through a collaborative effort

involving developers, architects, engineers,

building managers, waste management

professionals, sustainability consultants,

university researchers, and city agencies such

as the New York City Department of Sanitation

and the departments of City Planning and

Transportation; the Mayor’s Office of

Sustainability; Design and Construction; Health

and Mental Hygiene; and Education; and the

New York City Housing Authority.

The wide scope of participants indicates how

integral waste management is to city operations

and also how many aspects of urban life are

affected by it.Please remember the exam password GARBAGE. You will be required to

enter it in order to proceed with the online examination.







These particular guidelines focus on the relationship of SWM to building design. They are intended to be one specific

aspect of an overall municipal zero waste strategy, which itself is part of an even broader sustainable city strategy. The

initiative started with a question from an architect who asked, “What can architects do to support organics collection in

the buildings they design?”

The “Zero Waste Design Guidelines” point out that “waste is a design flaw in our packaging, in our products, and in

our buildings and cities, but the human designed system discards 99% of the materials we extract from the earth within

six months.” The report further asserts that “through design thinking, New York’s architects, government officials, and

citizens can solve their trash predicament.” Implementing these guidelines would be considered a short-term measure

as they can be readily initiated, although they would then remain in place for the long term.

The guidelines address questions such as:

• how materials can best be moved through the building

• whether buildings be designed with waste chutes

• what should be done about cardboard

• the possibility of avoiding bags on the curb, and

• where architects and developers can get guidance on design requirements and recommendations for best managing

waste.




http://www.zerowastedesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ZeroWasteDesignGuidelines2017_Web.pdf




The guidelines were developed as part of the NYC plan for the future,

entitled “One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City” (2015),

which aims to move the city toward circular material loops. The One New

York plan is a long-term (15-year) plan. It is a comprehensive, 354-page

plan that addresses all aspects of urban life and planning and that also

includes a section on zero waste. It is the intention of NYC to achieve

zero waste by 2030.

As noted earlier, any waste management project or program should be

well integrated into the overall sustainable community planning process.




http://www.nyc.gov/html/onenyc/downloads/pdf/publications/OneNYC.pdf




Other zero waste initiatives noted in the plan include:

• expanding the NYC organics program* to serve all New

Yorkers by the end of 2018

• enhancing the City’s curbside recycling program by offering

single-stream recycling by 2020

• reducing the use of plastic bags and other noncompostable

waste

• giving every New Yorker the opportunity to recycle and

reduce waste, including at NYCHA housing

• making all schools zero waste schools

• expanding opportunities to reuse and recycle textiles and

electronic waste

• developing an equitable blueprint for a Save-As-You-Throw**

program to reduce waste, and

• reducing commercial waste disposal by 90% by 2030.

Moving waste by garbage scow. Note the waste that has been

dropped into the ocean. Up until the mid 1900s, NYC dumped most

of its waste directly into the ocean.

*The organics program picks up food scraps and yard waste from

certain areas and converts it to compost.

** The Save-As-You-Throw program is intended to provide financial

incentives for diverting waste.

Chester Higgins: Public domain via Wikimedia





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GARBAGE_SCOWS_BRING_SOLID_WASTE,_FOR_USE_AS_LANDFILL,_TO_FRESH_KILLS_ON_STATEN_ISLAND,_JUST_EAST_OF_CARTERET,_NJ_-_NARA_-_548315.jpg



Los Angeles: Towards a Zero Waste City by 2025

As described by the plan itself:

In 2006, the RENEW LA (Recovering Energy, Natural Resources, and

Economic Benefits from Waste for Los Angeles) policy was passed

unanimously by the City Council as the resource management blueprint

to guide the City for the next 25 years. The [long-term] plan emphasized

economics, environmentalism, conservation, and technological

innovation. In addition to expanding the existing source reduction,

recycling, and composting efforts, and implementing new programs, the

RENEW LA plan calls for developing seven conversion technology

facilities, with one facility located in each of the sanitation’s six

wastesheds, and the seventh conversion technology facility to be located

within the local region.

The City Council codified RENEW LA Plan’s Zero Waste goal, stating:

The goal of Zero Waste as defined in this plan is to reduce, reuse,

recycle, or convert to energy the resources now going to disposal so as

to achieve an overall diversion level of 90% or more by 2025; and to

leave for disposal only a small inert residual.




https://bioenergyproducers.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/la-zero-waste-report.pdf




In April 2015, LA also adopted “The Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan”

(SWIRP)* through extensive stakeholder participation. This is a long-range

master plan for solid waste management that does not have site-specific

developments but that instead identifies 10 to 15 facilities that would address

the City’s SWM requirements up until 2030. It includes a series of targeted

diversion rates that would be implemented by a combination of enhancing

existing policies and programs and/or implementing new policies and

programs and/or the development of future facilities to meet the City’s needs.

LA has increasingly improved its diversion rates from 20.6% in 1990, to 46.0%

by 1995, 65.2% by 2000, and 76.4% at the end of 2011. This progress

suggests that their goal of 90% is achievable even when the difficulty of

reaching that goal increases as the city progresses closer and closer to it.

*Note that the word resources is used in conjunction with waste in the title.







A further program entitled recycLA divides the City

into eleven zones. The intention of such division

was to award a single waste company the

exclusive contract for each zone in order to ensure

that every individual and business would have full

access to recycling facilities. It was expected that

this would also result in fewer trucks and less

wear and tear on the streets. In order to secure

contracts, each contractor must use clean-fuel

trucks exclusively.

This approach has received criticism as some

consumers say their waste bills have doubled or

tripled because there is only one contractor in

each district to choose from.

An update to the plan is issued every year.




https://www.lacitysan.org/san/faces/wcnav_externalId/s-lsh-wwd-s-zwlaf-yp;jsessionid=ILnJx-m4bUfRyE4qlQVrlKNZU4L56D3o1aCGlabdTvBTngyb9IqL!-1446707989!-821932583?_adf.ctrl-state=150nkpox8c_1&_afrLoop=7054586077616723&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null#!%40%40%3F_afrWindowId%3Dnull%26_afrLoop%3D7054586077616723%26_afrWindowMode%3D0%26_adf.ctrl-state%3D150nkpox8c_5




LA County has subsequently developed a program entitled Rethink LA that is

directed towards helping consumers rethink their patterns of consumption and

disposal. The program’s website has tips on reducing/eliminating waste at the

household level and numerous links to further resources. This type of

information source, which is used in many communities, would be considered

implementable in the short term. The intention is that, through multiple small

short-term actions, there is a large and immediate positive impact and that in

addition, positive lifelong patterns will be initiated and maintained.

The site asks questions such as:

• can it be reused?

• is it repairable?

• is it recyclable? and

• can the item be placed on LA county’s material exchange site LACoMAX ?

Note how one LA initiative has led to another and how they have steadily

increased awareness and participation in waste management options.




http://dpw.lacounty.gov/epd/rethinkla/



Vancouver: Zero Waste by 2040

The City of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of a number of cities that have adopted

a zero waste goal. In their case, this goal falls under an even broader umbrella, which is

to be the greenest city in the world by 2020.

They use zero waste as a framework to develop policies, programs, and projects that

support this goal. Their target date for achieving zero waste is 2040, a long-term goal.

The full strategy is available here. Scroll to Appendix A to see the zero waste plan.




https://council.vancouver.ca/20180516/documents/pspc2a.pdf




The comprehensive greenest city strategy is a midterm strategy that identifies a

number of shorter-term actions that must be implemented in order to arrive at this

designation.

In reference to zero waste, it lists these as its 2017 achievements:

• The city’s micro street cleaning program, the daily collection of litter on foot

using brooms, shovels, and wheeled garbage carts, cleaned 400 city blocks

and collected over 12,000 bags of litter and 63,000 needles! (This is in addition

to the regular street cleaning.)

• 31 recycling stations were installed throughout the West End.

• The City ended its term as the contracted service provider. This means that

taxpayers will no longer have to pay a recycling utility fee.

• The City partnered with the Leverage Lab, Metro Vancouver, the Vancouver

Economic Commission, and industry to understand why so much clothing ends

up in the garbage, what happens to donated items, and how to support reuse

and recycling options.







The greenest city program incudes a “Greenest City

2020 Action Plan.” This is a short-term plan element as

it describes those activities that can and must be

implemented within a five-year time span. The viability of

short actions must be researched and coordinated with

technological developments. A sample short-term

(immediate) action is:

Increase overall diversion of organics by continuing

to support the expansion of food scraps recycling to

all sectors and support Metro Vancouver’s 2015

disposal ban on organic materials to landfill and

incinerator through education and enforcement.

The zero waste initiative and the greenest city initiative

are mutually supportive and integrated with one another

and with other programs for reduction of energy usage

and conversion to renewable sources, as well as water

usage and treatment.




https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/greenest-city-2020-action-plan-2015-2020.pdf




Their zero waste strategic plan has the following objectives:

Primary objective: eliminate the disposal of solid waste to landfill and

incinerator by 2040.

Supporting objectives: focus efforts upstream at the source of waste and

involve the concepts of avoid/reduce, reuse, recycle.

Complementary objectives include:

• support community social goals

• grow Vancouver’s circular economy

• develop a zero waste culture

• reduce Vancouver’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and

• reduce Vancouver’s ecological footprint.






Sample Zero Waste Strategies

One program under the Vancouver’s zero waste umbrella is a

single-use reduction strategy that involves phasing out all “the

usual suspects” (image) by 2025. This would be considered a

midterm element that has to be coordinated with the availability of

substitutes for the items to be phased out. There are a number of

other cities and even countries that have already phased out some

or all of these items or are in the process of doing so.

Corporations have followed suit. Starbucks, for example, will stop

using plastic straws by 2020. This will eliminate 1 billion straws a

year. McDonald’s has now partnered with Starbucks on this

initiative, which will also develop a compostable cup.

In the United States alone, an estimated more than 500 million

disposable plastic straws are used every day, according to Eco-

Cycle, a nonprofit recycling organization. Although plastic straws

are made from polypropylene, a recyclable plastic, most recyclers

will not accept them.




http://www.ecocycle.org/bestrawfree/faqs




Another supporting program for the Vancouver zero waste

strategy is the green demolition by-law, which applies to homes

built before 1940.

The adjacent image shows the heavy deposit required to apply

for demolition and the penalties that are applicable if the recycling

requirements are not met. While this may seem a very high

penalty, Vancouver housing prices are extremely high and it is not

unheard of for someone to pay $2 million for a house and to then

tear it down to build another, more expensive one in its place.

This fine then represents only a small portion of such costs.

A $14,650 deposit will be required when you

apply for a demolition permit with minimum

reuse and recycling requirements.

The deposit will be refunded if the reuse and

recycling requirements are met. To learn

more, read how we review recycling and

reuse compliance reports.

If the requirements aren’t met, some or all of

the deposit won’t be returned in accordance

with Appendix C of the Green Demolition By-

law.

The $350 demolition waste compliance fee is

a nonrefundable fee to ensure that Green

Demolition By-law compliance reviews are

done promptly.




https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/how-we-review-recycling-reuse-compliance-reports.pdf

http://former.vancouver.ca/blStorage/11450.PDF#page=2



Edmonton, Alberta: Integrated SWM Facility

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has invested about $450 million into one of the

most sophisticated waste management programs in the world. The system

includes a 233-hectare (575-acre) waste management center, the largest and

most advanced such facility in North America. The total area of all the

buildings on-site is 80,000 square meters (860,000 square feet), and the

composting facility alone occupies almost 28,000 square meters (300,000

square feet). About 9,000 tonnes of material arrives in approximately 4,500

trucks every week, and every year more than 15,000 students, teachers, and

adults tour the center.

Their central integrated transfer plant sorts waste into four streams:

• organics for composting

• waste for recycling

• waste for landfill

• waste for conversion to ethanol




https://www.edmonton.ca/programs_services/garbage_waste/about-waste-management-in-edmonton.aspx




The center includes:

• an enclosed composting facility that composts residential waste, including grass

clippings

• a material sorting facility so residents do not need to sort materials, simplifying

recycling for households, increasing participation, and ensuring correct sorting

• a construction waste facility that mechanically sorts separate mixed loads of material

into various reusable commodities (75% of an individual load must be wood, metal,

drywall, asphalt/concrete, asphalt shingles, cardboard, and paper)

• a 45,000 ft2 (4,180 m2) electronics facility to process 30,000 tonnes per year of

computers, televisions, and a wide range of electrical and electronic waste materials for

recycling, and

• a closed-loop recycling plant to process waste paper collected from city offices and

other sources into recycled paper products for sale back to the city.

The landfill site was closed in 2010.







The center also includes:

• a landfill gas recovery facility, a 4.8-megawatt facility producing enough

electricity for 4,600 Edmonton homes

• biosolids settlement lagoons where recovered biosolids are integrated

into the composting system

• a state-of-the-art research and development facility that tests different

feedstocks for gasification and conversion to various green chemicals

and advanced transportation fuels such as ethanol

• an education building with a teaching theater, classrooms, and meeting

rooms for general and technical educational activities, and

• a five-hectare (12.5-acre) lake maintained as a natural habitat for deer,

geese, ducks, and other wildlife.







This diagram illustrates how various waste streams are

directed, managed, and integrated in this central location.

The city, like many others,* is targeting a 90% diversion rate

but as of August 2018 only had a diversion rate of about

50%. This requires an SWM update in order to close the

various strategic and operational gaps and to define program

changes to align the City with this goal. A significant public

consultation will be part of this update process.

* A 90% diversion is a common target for a zero waste goal.






Eliminating Demolition Waste: The C.K. Choi Building

The C.K. Choi Building at the University of

British Columbia is a unique building that

explores many sustainable concepts. The

university originally intended to dispose of the

timber from an arena being demolished across

the street from the site, but the architect

intervened and asked for the timber to be

salvaged, inventoried, and tested. The C.K.

Choi Building was then specifically dimensioned

and designed to use the retrieved heavy

timbers.

The building was also clad in brick recovered

from yet another deconstructed building, and

incorporates on-site water waste management

features such as composting toilets and

graywater gardens.







Once the trusses from the armory were taken apart, the portions that were riddled with bolt holes were trimmed off and

the resulting timbers measured, tested, and stacked on-site. From this stack, an inventory was created, and from this

inventory, the building design and framing were developed.

The armory was not intentionally designed to be disassembled, but the configuration of the trusses and their

connections made it feasible.







The new building was then constructed across the street from the old one using the recycled timbers as the main

framing, as shown above. Concrete stabilizing walls were also used as part of the framing strategy







Mature trees were retained on the very narrow site (previously a parking lot).

The architect noted that cutting down trees while preserving timber was

counterproductive. The mature trees are also part of the cooling strategy and

ambience. This building is so pleasant and productive to work in that its public

spaces are often used by many from other faculties.






Eliminating Construction Waste: High-Rise Mass Timber Construction

Wood construction has recently advanced significantly, and high-rise mass

timber construction is now feasible.

One of the technologies that is used for this type of construction is cross-

laminated timber (CLT). CLT panels are formed by stacking and gluing together

successive perpendicular layers of wood. The layered stacks are then pressed

in large hydraulic or vacuum presses to form an interlocked panel. These panels

usually use wood harvested from sustainable forests where each tree is

replanted multiple times.

The factory process itself reduces waste considerably, and since components

can be delivered completely finished to the site, this approach eliminates all site

waste related to structure and cladding as well. Panel connections can be

designed to permit disassembly and reuse if the building ever reaches the end

of its useful life. (The world’s oldest existing wood building was constructed in

711.) Thinkwood is a good source for more information, including further

continuing education credits on this type of construction.

Image courtesy of Lever Architecture




https://www.thinkwood.com/products-and-systems/cross-laminated-timber-clt-handbook

https://leverarchitecture.com/



Eliminating Construction Waste: Brock Commons Tallwood House

The Brock Commons Tallwood House, as of

2018, is the tallest mass timber tower in the

world, although there are many others in the

planning stage. The 18-story tower for 400

students was framed by nine men in less than

70 days after the prefabricated components

were delivered. Each week, two stories of

timber structure and facade were installed.

Importantly, the wood slab was clear for

working by other trades immediately

postinstallation: note the cleanliness of the site

and the lack of waste. Note also how the

simple base connection (bottom left image) will

allow easy removal of the column at a later

date. In addition to reducing waste, mass

timber has a number of other benefits such as

CO2 retention and structural lightness.

Images courtesy of https://imagelibrary.bcfii.ca/




https://imagelibrary.bcfii.ca/



Design for Disassembly Example

One of the six key concepts of the built positive movement, an initiative of the

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, is design for disassembly.

Their full list is:

• circular design

• material health

• design for disassembly, reuse, and recovery

• value chain collaboration and integration

• qualifying and quantifying, and

• policies and standards.

Venlo City Hall: see next slide.




https://www.c2ccertified.org/builtpositive



Eliminating Construction Waste: Design for Disassembly

One of the earlier buildings designed with this philosophy is

Venlo City Hall. In the words of Hans Goverde, partner and

architect at Kraaijvanger Architects, the building’s architects:

All the raw materials and parts used have a “passport,”

detailing their production and origin. The building is therefore

in essence a huge raw-materials databank. When a service

or product reaches the end of its useful life, these materials

can easily be retrieved for high-grade reuse.

The building design focuses on four key cradle-to-cradle

aspects:

• how the building can improve indoor and outdoor* air quality

• how the building can produce more renewable energy than it

needs

• how applied materials can be appropriate for a biological or

technological cycle without loss of quality

• how the building can improve water quality so the water

becomes healthy for biological metabolism

Note how the issues regards materials are integrated with other

issues and that considerations extend beyond the building to the

community.

* A portion of the facade is covered with vegetation.




http://www.c2c-centre.com/project/venlo-city-hall



Eliminating Waste: Products as a Service

Interface, the world’s largest producer of modular carpets, pioneered

the concept of product as service in 1994 when it introduced the

carpet ReEntryTM program.

As originally stated by its CEO (since deceased),

If we’re successful, we’ll spend the rest of our days harvesting

yesteryear’s carpets and other petrochemically derived products

and recycling them into new materials and converting sunlight into

energy, with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions

into the ecosystem. And we’ll be doing well, very well, by doing

good. That’s the vision. -- Ray C. Anderson, 1997

Since that time, the company has taken back any worn carpet tiles

and refurbished them and returned them to the marketplace in an

endless loop. They operate under Mission Zero®, a promise to

eliminate any negative impact the company has on the environment

by 2020.






Product as a Service Example

In a similar vein, architect Thomas Rau has

developed light as a service in conjunction with

Philips Lighting. Together they created a pay-per-

lux intelligent lighting system to fit the requirements

of the space at a manageable price. Philips retains

control and ownership of the items they produce,

enabling better maintenance, reconditioning, and

recovery.

Thomas Rau has since created Turntoo. This is a

platform that facilitates products being treated as

resource banks, and that facilitates improved

resource management between manufacturer,

supplier, and end-user.






Eliminating Waste: Paper as a Service

REEP, a startup from Israel, took a different approach

to rethinking and reengineering paper. REEP is

composed of two elements.

The first is an ablation-resistant, erasable paper that:

just seems like a nice quality paper compatible

with existing laser printers and copiers…The

second component, a device resembling an office

multifunction printer, contains a laser that can

erase the page and remove the toner from this re-

engineered paper. The device also saves the

contents of the page, including any of the user’s

annotations, and presents the original page ready

to be used again. Now, rather than buying reams

of office paper and paying for storage, distribution,

scanning, collecting, and shredding, customers

now buy the REEP service that provides cost

savings without any upfront investments.Image courtesy of

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation




https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/case-studies/reep




The Future of Circular Design

The previous few slides serve

simply to illustrate a few examples

of product, process, and business

model redesign that is taking place

globally.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a

prime proponent of the circular

economy, hosts numerous other

projects and circular business

models.

Monitoring how product and

process redesign is evolving

internationally is critical to creating

an SWMP that will remain relevant

and effective over its lifetime.

Image courtesy of The Ellen MacArthur Foundation




https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/case-studies




Many communities now address waste elimination and management with plans and programs as part of their

overall strategies to become sustainable communities. The design community has also integrated waste

elimination into numerous products and processes, and there are now a steadily increasing number of

examples that demonstrate the principles inherent in those plans.


❑ Which waste strategy in this chapter had the most direct focus on one aspect of waste management and what other strategies did it relate to?

❑ What are three benefits of using new high-rise wood technology?

?






❑ The NYC “Zero Waste Design Guidelines” focus on the relationship of an SWMP to building design. They

are a subset of the NYC zero waste strategy, which is itself a part of the overall One New York plan.

❑ Off-site waste from factory fabrication is significantly reduced, on-site waste related to structure and

cladding is eliminated, and buildings can be designed for easy disassembly and reuse with high-rise wood

technologies.

A






Summary and Resources






Summary

The magnitude of solid waste as well as the awareness of its negative impacts on the environment, municipal

operations, and community health and behavior continues to grow. In parallel, there is also a rapidly evolving body of

thought on how to design and develop alternative, more effective, sustainable approaches to its elimination and/or

management.

These new approaches range from developing a comprehensive set of options for diverting waste from landfill and

watersheds; creating new products from existing waste; designing new products, processes, and structures that reduce

or eliminate waste; and planning communities that treat waste as a resource and/or energy; to redesigning economies

to behave in a circular manner somewhat similar to natural systems.

Measures such as these work across different time scales, and an SWMP should recognize this and incorporate both

shorter-term elements as well as long-term goals and strategies such as zero waste or a circular economy. The shorter-

term elements should be accompanied by achievable, measurable, reportable targets, which will maintain momentum

for any plan. These targets should be reviewed and updated regularly and success rates published.






Summary

SWMPs are also designed to work at international, national, state or provincial, regional, municipal, corporate,

institutional, or personal scales. An SWMP should be constructed with those measures that match the scale of the area

that the plan is designed for and be informed by those actions that relate to larger or smaller scales.

Developing an effective SWMP involves analyzing all of these emerging directions, identifying those that are most

applicable to the planning context, refining them to suit local specifics, and integrating them into any planning process

and plan. An effective SWMP must also be integrated with all other aspects of community planning at the same time.

There are now a number of resources such as SWMP and design guidelines, templates, and strategies that can inform

the process of analyzing and synthesizing this complex topic into a manageable plan. Because the rate of rethinking

the topic of SWM is continually accelerating and evolving, an SWMP should be created as a living document that can

readily be adapted to incorporate new approaches and processes as they emerge.






Resources

“Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, May 2018,

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/advancing-sustainable-materials-management-0. Accessed

July 2018.

“Basic Information About Landfill Gas.” Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.,

https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas. Accessed September 2018.

The Biomimicry Institute, n.d., https://biomimicry.org/what-is-biomimicry/. Accessed August 2018.

Boffey, Daniel. “Netherlands to Build World’s First Habitable 3D Printed Houses.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 6

June 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jun/06/netherlands-to-build-worlds-first-habitable-3d-printed-houses.

Accessed August 2018.

The Circular Design Guide. Ellen MacArthur Foundation + IDEO, n.d., https://www.circulardesignguide.com/. Accessed August 2018.

“Construction and Demolition Debris Generation in the United States, 2014.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource

Conservation and Recovery, December 2016, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-

12/documents/construction_and_demolition_debris_generation_2014_11302016_508.pdf. Accessed August 2018.




https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/advancing-sustainable-materials-management-0.%20Accessed%20July%202018

https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas

https://biomimicry.org/what-is-biomimicry/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jun/06/netherlands-to-build-worlds-first-habitable-3d-printed-houses

https://www.circulardesignguide.com/

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-12/documents/construction_and_demolition_debris_generation_2014_11302016_508.pdf



Resources

“Construction Waste-LEED Reporting.” Premier Facility Management. PFMGreen.com, n.d., http://www.pfmgreen.com/services.php.

Accessed July 2018.

“Construction Waste Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017–2025.” Transparency Market

Research, n.d., https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/construction-waste-market.html. Accessed August 2018.

Davis, Nicola. “New Fountains and Bottle-Refill Points to Tackle London’s Plastic Waste.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media

Limited, 23 January 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/23/new-fountains-and-bottle-refill-points-to-tackle-londons-

plastic-waste?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other. Accessed August 2018.

“Directory of Waste Resources on the Web.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, October 2017, https://www.epa.gov/international-

cooperation/directory-waste-resources-web. Accessed July 2018.

Dorwart, Laura. “Magic Mushrooms: How Fungus Could Help Rebuild Derelict Cleveland.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media

Limited, 5 July 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/05/magic-mushrooms-how-fungus-could-help-rebuild-derelict-

cleveland?CMP=share_btn_link. Accessed July 2018.

Fab.City. Fab City Global Initiative, n.d., https://fab.city/#intro. Accessed August 2018.




http://www.pfmgreen.com/services.php

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/construction-waste-market.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/23/new-fountains-and-bottle-refill-points-to-tackle-londons-plastic-waste?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/directory-waste-resources-web

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/05/magic-mushrooms-how-fungus-could-help-rebuild-derelict-cleveland?CMP=share_btn_link

https://fab.city/#intro



Resources

Gratz, Roberta Brandes. “Curitiba: An Environmental Showcase.” Huffington Post. Oath Inc., 6 October 2013,

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/roberta-brandes-gratz/curitiba_b_3713953.html. Accessed August 2018.

Hoornweg, Daniel and Perinaz Bhada-Tata. “What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management.” World Bank, March 2012,

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBANDEVELOPMENT/Resources/336387-1334852610766/What_a_Waste2012_Final.pdf.

Accessed August 2018.

“Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.” European Commission: Environment. European Commission, July 2018,

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm. Accessed July 2018.

Lifset, R. and Thomas Graedel. “Industrial Ecology: Goals and Definitions.” University of Western Cape, n.d.,

http://planet.botany.uwc.ac.za/nisl/ESS/Documents/Industrial_Ecology_Overview.pdf. Accessed August 2018.

Lovins, Amory. “Natural Capitalism.” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, n.d., http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/natcap/. Accessed

August 2018.

“Marriott Grande Lakes Sales Center.” Modular Building Institute, n.d.,

http://www.modular.org/Awards/AwardEntryDetail.aspx?awardentryid=755. Accessed July 2018.




https://www.huffingtonpost.com/roberta-brandes-gratz/curitiba_b_3713953.html

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBANDEVELOPMENT/Resources/336387-1334852610766/What_a_Waste2012_Final.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm

http://planet.botany.uwc.ac.za/nisl/ESS/Documents/Industrial_Ecology_Overview.pdf

http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/natcap/

http://www.modular.org/Awards/AwardEntryDetail.aspx?awardentryid=755



Resources

Marshall, Cody, et.al. “The 2016 State of Curbside Report.” The Recycling Partnership, January 2017,

https://recyclingpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/state-of-recycling-report-Jan2017.pdf. Accessed August 2018.

“Methane Emissions from Landfills.” Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). Environmental Protection Agency, May 2018,

https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas#methane. Accessed August 2018.

Parley. Parley for the Oceans, n.d., http://www.parley.tv/oceanplastic/#parley-air-strategy-1. Accessed August 2018.

“Parley AIR Strategy: Avoid.Intercept.Redesign.” UN Oceans Conference. United Nations, n.d.,

https://oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=15581. Accessed September 2018.

Pocket Living. Pocket Living Limited, n.d., https://www.pocketliving.com/pocket/buy/development/24. Accessed August 2018.

“Recycling Benefits to the Economy.” All-recycling-facts.com, n.d., http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-benefits.html. Accessed

July 2018.

REEP: The Digital Enterprise Office Solution. REEP Technologies Ltd., n.d., http://reepcorp.com/. Accessed August 2018.

.




https://recyclingpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/state-of-recycling-report-Jan2017.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas#methane

http://www.parley.tv/oceanplastic/#parley-air-strategy-1

https://oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=15581

https://www.pocketliving.com/pocket/buy/development/24

http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/recycling-benefits.html

http://reepcorp.com/



Resources

Simmons, Ann. “The World’s Trash Crisis, and Why Many Americans Are Oblivious.” Los Angeles Times, 22 April 2016,

http://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-trash-20160422-20160421-snap-htmlstory.html. Accessed July 2018.

Slowey, Kim. “Report: Global Construction Waste Will Almost Double by 2025.” Construction Dive. Industry Dive, March 2018,

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/report-global-construction-waste-will-almost-double-by-2025/518874/. Accessed July 2018

“Sustainable Management of Construction and Demolition Materials.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, February 2018,

https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-management-construction-and-demolition-materials. Accessed July 2018.

Taylor, Matthew. “Can Norway Help Us Solve the Plastic Crisis, One Bottle at a Time?” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media

Limited, 12 July 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norway-help-us-solve-the-plastic-crisis-one-bottle-at-a-

time?CMP=share_btn_link. Accessed August 2018.

The Thingery, n.d., http://thethingery.com/. Accessed August 2018.

“U.S. EPA Sustainable Materials Management Program Strategic Plan.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, October 2015,

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/smm_strategic_plan_october_2015.pdf. Accessed August 2018.




http://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-trash-20160422-20160421-snap-htmlstory.html

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/report-global-construction-waste-will-almost-double-by-2025/518874/

https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-management-construction-and-demolition-materials

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norway-help-us-solve-the-plastic-crisis-one-bottle-at-a-time?CMP=share_btn_link

http://thethingery.com/

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/smm_strategic_plan_october_2015.pdf



Resources

“Waste: A Problem or a Resource?” European Environment Agency, August 2016, https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-

2014/articles/waste-a-problem-or-a-resource. Accessed July 2018.

“What Is Cradle to Cradle®?” Cradle to Cradle Islands. European Union, n.d.,

http://c2cislands.org/sjablonen/1/infotype/webpage/view.asp?objectID=1233. Accessed September 2018.

“What Is Industrial Symbiosis?” International Synergies. International Synergies Limited, n.d., https://www.international-

synergies.com/our-approach/what-is-industrial-symbiosis/. Accessed September 2018.

“Wheelabrator Baltimore.” Wheelabrator Technologies, n.d., https://www.wtienergy.com/plant-locations/energy-from-waste/wheelabrator-

Baltimore. Accessed September 2018.

Yeheyis, M., et al. “An Overview of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Canada: A Lifecycle Analysis Approach to

Sustainability.” Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, vol. 15, no. 1, 2013, pp. 81-91, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-012-0481-

6. Accessed August 2018.

Zero Waste International Alliance, n.d., http://zwia.org/. Accessed August 2018.

Zero Waste Network, n.d., http://www.zerowastenetwork.org/. Accessed August 2018.




https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2014/articles/waste-a-problem-or-a-resource

http://c2cislands.org/sjablonen/1/infotype/webpage/view.asp?objectID=1233

https://www.international-synergies.com/our-approach/what-is-industrial-symbiosis/

https://www.wtienergy.com/plant-locations/energy-from-waste/wheelabrator-Baltimore

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-012-0481-6

http://zwia.org/

http://www.zerowastenetwork.org/



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