SWANA ARF Subscribers Select Topics for FY2024 Research

At the beginning of each fiscal year (starting in July), subscribing organizations that participate in SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation are asked to identify and vote on research topics of importance to them.

This year, the four research groups of the ARF voted to select the following research topics for FY2024:

• Technologies to Help Identify Recycling Contamination at the Source - This research topic was submitted by the City of Durham, NC for the Collection Research Group and is described as follows:

“There are companies that are promoting AI / cameras /etc. and strategies to identify and combat recycling contamination as it is being collected. We would be interested in knowing how well these work and best practices with this emerging technology.”

• Battery Collection Practices and Recovery/Management Technologies – This research topic was submitted by the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County for the Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Research Group and is described as follows:

“Research and report on the current state of primary and secondary (rechargeable) battery collection practices and recovery technologies.”

• Next Generation Conversion Technologies/ Waste Conversion Technology Failures – This research topic combines the topics submitted by CDM Smith and Hennepin County, MN. The descriptions submitted by these organization to describe these topics are as follows:

Next Generation Conversion Technologies (Hennepin County) - “Typical waste-to-energy facilities that combust waste are dwindling in number. New facilities are rare. Since this type of waste conversion is controversial due to public health concerns, we are interested in learning of new technologies that may replace mass burn or RDF facilities.”

Waste Conversion Technology Failures (CDM Smith) - Several recent emerging technologies have failed to make it to fully proven commercial operations. It would be good to summarize the proposed technology, the timeline that they were active and the technology (or the company’s) current state (defunct, willing to provide technology license, operating).”

• Forecasting Waste Generation Rates – This topic was submitted by the City of Winston-Salem for the Disposal Research Group and was described as follows:

“Forecasting / modeling waste generation in a community is a critical component of effective solid waste management planning. Planning for future disposal capacity, recovery/recycling programs, and carbon reduction requires meaningful projections of waste generation. This is also important for securing funding, issuing bonds, franchises, ordinances, and other components of an effective integrated waste management program.

Technical guidance for an analytical approach that considers variables such as population growth, economic activity, historical trends, and competitive influences on the waste stream would be a useful end product for solid waste managers.”

The SWANA Applied Research Foundation is the research arm of SWANA and is currently funded and supported by 49 subscribing organizations. To date, the ARF has published over 60 reports that are available free of charge to all SWANA members. However, only the subscribing organizations can submit research topics for consideration and access the reports for the first year after they are published.

If you think that your organization would like to participate with this group of forward-thinking and innovative organizations, please contact Jeremy O’Brien, P.E., Director of Applied Research at SWANA, at jobrien@swana.org or 704-906-7269.