Collection and Transfer Tech News

By James R. Miller, SE, CEO, J. R. Miller & Associates, Inc.

It is a privilege to be part of the Collection and Transfer Technical Division, and thanks to Allison Trulock for her introduction in the April edition. My experience is solely related to transfer (and recycling) facilities, so my personal contribution to this Division will derive from that. I hope my experience will bring value to the Division and to SWANA.

The role of transfer stations in solid waste management and materials recovery has increased significantly in recent years and, as a result, transfer training is a very important subject. In the previous edition, Allison stated that we are considering revamping transfer training, possibly to include segments such as transfer stations’ increased role in recovery and recycling. If you would like to support this effort, or have ideas to share, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Those of you who participated in the WASTECON®tour of the EDCO Signal Hill TS and MRF and the Puente Hills MRF were able to see two very good facilities. Both of these TS/MRFs are highly functional, very efficient and are designed for flexibility to be able to adjust to changing waste streams. We would like your comments about the value of this tour, particularly the facilities chosen and the amount of technical content available to the participants. In addition, I welcome any questions pertaining to operations or design intent and will do my best to address them in a future edition.

Also, for those of you who attended the Collection and Transfer Division panel on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) at WASTECON®, we would like your feedback. Obviously, there is a lot of interest in CNG these days, and any comments about content or format and any suggestions for improvement on how we address this important topic are welcome. To repeat a statement from Allison in the last edition, we are considering compiling case studies of successful CNG efforts and lessons learned through our benchmarking committee. If you are interested in getting involved or have some ideas to share, please contact her at Allison.trulock@hdrinc.com or Jeremy O’Brien (benchmark committee chair) at jobrien@swana.org.

I am just beginning to learn the responsibilities that come with being the Vice Director of the Collection and Transfer Technical Division, so please let me know if there is anything I can or should be doing. I look forward to being of service to you.

Contact Jim Miller with comments or questions about his column at jmiller@jrma.com or 714-524-1870.

Also in this edition of Collection and Transfer Tech News: