You don’t have to travel far to find trash from a major fast-food chain. This was the piece I photographed, but about 50 feet up the road I found the rest of the discarded meal- paper bag, fry container and napkins. I’d like to think that most people don’t just toss this kind of thing out the window. I imagine a lot of trash ends up on the ground because people don’t cover their trash bins or close community dumpsters. Then again, the proliferation of trash along highways would suggest if given the chance, people will be lazy.

Today I filed paperwork with the state of Pennsylvania to register as an official charity organization. I did this for a few reasons. One, the state of PA has specific laws governing individuals or organizations that solicit donations from residents and businesses. Technically, the relatively small amount I need to raise exempts me from the requirement to register, however, after giving it some thought, I wanted to instill more confidence in my supporters by having an official registration number.

So, as of today’s filing my charity, ‘Dirty Hands, Clean Heart’ is registered and I can begin door-to-door fundraising activities.

To learn more about my fundraising needs, you can visit my GoFundMe page directly here.

Thank you in advance for your time and support!

This past week I visited 2 of the 4 SWM facilities within my own county. LCSWMA (Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority) handles landfilling, recycling and waste-to-energy services for two PA counties (about 800,000 people in 2014). This past week I visited the Frey Farm Landfill as well as their Waste-to-Energy Plant.

My goal was to better understand how these kinds of facilities are operated, the pros and cons of certain approaches, and also see if there was anything I could learn from how these sites are managed that can help me better understand the challenges faced in India. I’ll describe my experiences at both sites in separate posts and then explore what might and might not work for similar facilities in India.

The Frey Farm Landfill

The Frey Farm Landfill is located about 20 minutes from downtown Lancaster in scenic farmland. As I approached the landfill I saw only a large green hill in the distance. The stereotypical images we have in our minds of what a landfill is “supposed” to look like didn’t apply here. I parked at the visitors center and waited for my guide. Another unexpected thing I noticed. There was almost zero foul odor in the air. Frankly, I wouldn’t have complained about it if there had been, since, again, I was expecting it. But on that sunny, clear day, I could have been standing in any rural neighborhood in Lancaster.

My guide Allison was kind enough to take me around (I was the only person signed up for the tour that day). We drove around the massive landfill as she explained the LCSWMA philosophy, history, environmental and safety practices, as well as what they call their “Integrated System” which allows them to provide energy, divert waste away from the landfill, and keep toxic pollutants out of the water, air and soil. Things I was impressed with:

• Waste-to-Energy solutions: Methane from the decomposition of waste at the landfill is siphoned off to a combustion generator to provide a source of electricity. This keeps it out of the air, reducing greenhouse gasses. Treated steam produced from the sites operations is piped to a local business and used in their sanitation process. 2 wind energy turbines are installed near the top of the landfill.
• Attention to environmental safety: Extra care is taken to make sure trash that blows from the landfill doesn’t burden the local people or wildlife. Large nets are placed along the perimeter to catch trash, and a small staff periodically treks 1 mile in each direction around the site to pick up any litter that may have escaped. The site is inspected randomly each month by the EPA. Ground water from the site is tested as well, to make sure no heavy metals or other toxins are leaking through the protective barrier underneath the landfill.
• Financial Sustainability: I was surprised by the fact that though the LCSWMA is a government run operation, it utilizes NO tax revenue. They maintain the site and the pay of their employees by the sale of electricity from their WTE solutions to local  utilities as well as the fees for dumping at the site. This is particularly important to my research for India as lack of funds is sited as one of the largest barriers to many of the SWM solutions that have been tried or proposed in the past. If it’s possible to run a site like this without taxing an already poor population, while at the same time providing energy to businesses and homes, this may still be an option for India in some capacity.
• Efficiency: Remember that lack of odor I noticed from the landfill? Allison explained that most of the site is used to dump construction materials and other non-organic/non-food based waste. Between recycling and their WTE plant, they manage to divert 98% of the SW away from the landfill entirely. This has extended the life of the landfill and lead to more sanitary conditions at the site as a whole. Without organic waste, wildlife largely stays away from the site (aside from a few birds I saw) and the odor is reduced. Also between the 4 sites, there are only about 100 employees, another stat that surprised me.
• Community Engagement: LCSWMA  goes to  a great deal of effort to educate the local population about their operations, through providing free tours, educational materials and visiting schools and universities. This community engagement is particularly interesting to me because I see it as an area I could help improve when I continue my research in India in September.I don’t have pictures of either site to show you (I was permitted to take pictures) because honestly, there isn’t much to show that would be very descriptive of my experience there. What was far more useful to me was having someone to answer my questions.

In addition to my tour, Allison provided me with a lot of useful resource information to help me further my personal quest.

Lessons for India:

I think one big caveat to note is that between cities in India and Lancaster county there is a HUGE population difference. Hyderabad is home 3.6 million people – 3x the population of Lancaster and Dauphin County combined. I am not educated enough on the economics of scale to know whether an integrated system like this would function well under that kind of population density. Still, I find the Waste-to-Energy solutions at the landfill are worth exploring because India also has an energy crisis.

Another caveat is a cultural one: India has an informal waste management stream that doesn’t exist in the US. The nearly 4,000 rag pickers in Mumbai that make their living off the landfills would need to find another source of income, if the landfills were either suddenly more efficient, or properly covered at the end of each day (A US requirement by law. Uncertain of the laws in India regarding this). Many have said, give the waste-pickers jobs at theses new plants, but when 4 large facilities only require 100 employees, that is not a viable employment alternative for waste pickers. Any benefit from sites like these in India will be environmental and public health related. Job solutions remain elusive.

So the biggest take away for India would be the need for more environmental attention utilizing WTE technology such as the methane combustion method at Frey Farm Landfill and perhaps the wind energy generators depending on the site. Also, there is an incredible amount of monitoring and accountability at this site. I suspect the history of corruption (fueled by scarcity, in fairness)  in this area in India will be a challenge to overcome, but it seems mitigated here in Lancaster by the fact that those in charge of the various roles sincerely care about the role they play and their responsibility to people and the environment. We need to find those people in India, and give them these important roles.

I feel fortunate to live in a county that has such an efficient WM system and what’s more I am happy they they are transparent enough to educate the public. Without access to formal education on the topic it’s a tremendous resource for me.

In my next post I’ll talk about LCSWMA’s Waste-to-Energy Plant.

Considering the amount of home renovation going on in our neighborhood these days I’m actually impressed that this is the only stray evidence I’ve found outside the renovation site: a crumpled piece of blue painter’s tape.

We’ve had some blustery wind that last few days and because of that, there’s always more litter billowing about. It escapes from trash cans or just journey’s on the wind from far away places. Today, (in addition to other things) I found this Styrofoam cup. From what I’ve read it can take at least 500 years for one of these babies to break down.

Today I found an unassuming wispy piece of plastic. It doesn’t look like it would cause much trouble, except this is the same stuff that is clogging the oceans right now. In fairness, even though I’ve thrown it out, it may still drift away form whatever landfill is ends up in. This is only one step in a multi-step solution.

Today’s find is an interesting one. I’ve never smoked but I thought I was pretty well aware of the different ways one might inhale cancer, but this is a new one. White Grape flavored cigars. The wrapper design leads me to believe this is like the cocktail of cigars. Something fruity for those who can’t handle the hard stuff. Also, 2 for $0.99 ? WHAT A DEAL. (Is it? I don’t know.)

Today begins my project within a project. I’m starting the ‘One Piece Project’ where each time I go for a walk, I pick up one piece of litter and throw it away as a way to encourage others to do the same. It’s a simple action. I’m not asking people to take a trash bag and clean up a highway (although if you do, awesome!) I’m asking for one piece – just one, each time you go out. It won’t amount to much at first, but imagine if 100 people in a neighborhood picked up one piece of trash each time they went for a walk? That neighborhood would be spotless in no time. I encourage any of my readers to join me in the project. Take your smartphone or camera with you when you go and document each piece you pick up. Post it in the comments or on Twitter under the hashtag #OnePiece .

Let’s see if we can inspire people to keep their towns and cities clean.

Here’s Day 1 for me: A candy wrapper.

Today I want to discuss the major trend I have seen in all the reading I have done and how I can use that knowledge to be useful in the realm of waste management in India and elsewhere.

First though, a small update: I’ve made arrangements for a private tour of two of my local county’s waste management facilities. One is a landfill and the other is a Waste-to Energy-Plant. There is also a Transfer Station which I will plan on visiting a little later. I will be going to the Landfill this Friday and the W2E site on Monday.  Between now and then, I want to formulate questions I can ask in order to broaden my knowledge.

• What, if any are the cons to this method of waste management?
•          ——– Toxic bi-products?
•           ——-  Space Limitations?
•         ——– E-waste and heavy metals?
• How important is public awareness to the effectiveness of the processes that go on here?
• How to do you make the public aware of what you are doing here?
• Is this a state run facility? Or a private company that holds a contract with the state?
• What challenges are you dealing with now?
• Who oversees the facility to make sure it’s functioning according to safety and environmental codes?

It’s an unlikely possibility but if I get a chance I’d like to interview individual employees too, out of earshot of tour guides and higher ups, to get a better understanding of working conditions. Since it’s a guided tour it’s not like I’m expecting to see the seedy underbelly of the SWM industrial complex in my home state. That’s research for a different project. My goal with this is to get a sense of how facilities like this are intended to function, to draw comparisons with similar facilities in India when I go and also, to be honest, get my hands dirty and actually SEE parts of the processes I’ve been reading so much about so that it’s experience and not just theory.

Now back to that trend I was talking about earlier. For last few weeks I’d been feeling a little lost with this project. I had lost sight of exactly what I hoped to achieve. I was reading and learning a lot, but I had no idea how I was supposed to make any of it actionable. What do I know? I have read how others have tried and failed or succeeded on a small scale, but again with no scientific or other educational background in this area I was beginning to think my reading was going to be in vein – that when I got to India I was just going to flounder around, not knowing who to talk to or what my point was before giving up and going to see the Taj.

But one issue kept arising again and again with these articles and it has helped point me in the direction of a potential SWM project.

Social Awareness.

I don’t mean like on social media, although that is a useful tool for sure. I mean advertising and education to those in India who don’t have access to social media, the internet or even a TV. The slums are notoriously under served for a multitude of reasons, but one is that aside from NGO’s painstakingly going door-to-door or holding community meetings that no one can afford to stop working to attend, there is no way to educate local people about the benefits of different SWM initiatives, how it effects them, and what kind of power they have. Pamphlets seem counter productive – just adding more waste to the pile and eating up more valuable trees. But wait…

https://www.botanicalpaperworks.com/how_plantable_paper_works

Plantable, Biodegradable paper!

Yes, I know – It’s expensive.But what if you could increase public awareness of SWM services and resources by printing about them on this kind of paper, distribute it to have it become flowers or vegetables once again? I’m idea-making here and of course if anyone reading this knows of an organization who is already doing this, I would appreciate a link because I would love to connect with them. If not, I think this (with financial support in the form of grants and other backers) might be a way to increase public awareness in places that are hard to reach. More awareness seems to = more cooperation for households and more participation from business and schools in the SWM process.

I could bring my skills as an illustrator to the table, by designing attracting leafless or flyers that would be printed on this paper.

This is only one idea but it has given me something to focus on and aim for. There are still many months before my trip, but now as I begin to make contacts in India knowing how I want to help will allow me to ask more pointed questions.

-Ashley

I’ve touched on the importance that educating the public seems to be in making sure SWM initiatives become successful. If the public doesn’t know about it, no one can get behind it in large enough numbers for it to be successful long term. In Chapter 11, informing the public as a key to successful SWM returns but expands into the realm of marketing.

It seems like a tough sell. They say sex sells, but how do you make compost sexy? Well, as this portion of the text explains, you can’t even get to that question until you commit to the policy of actually trying to market.

The chapter begins be re-visiting issues we are all familiar with my now in the text, but examines further what exactly the demand for compost is in Hyderabad. Who is actually interested in using it? And is there enough demand to even warrant a focus on this area? As it turns out, about 85% of the farmers interviewed for this paper expressed an interest in using urban compost in their fields citing the many benefits to their yield from using it. However, as previously mentioned, the contamination of organic waste by broken glass, plastic and metal have turned most farmers off of using it. Also, when asked how much farmers are willing to pay for high quality compost, most were uncertain. Like farmers, other consumers of compost are often unsure what a good price for compost would be, which hints at a  lack of knowledge as to the benefit of compost and the labor involved in producing it. Without this knowledge, it’s impossible to know what to pay. This uncertainty is also another turn off for farmers.

The article mentions several private companies and NGOs that have made composting their priority and summarizes the varying range of success. Private companies that invest in research appear to make the most profit from their compost, presumably because they have been able to research how to make a superior product. Private companies also have another benefit – Marketing. They can afford to market their product in a way small NGOs can’t due to lack of resources.

Another gap in the marketing of compost comes from the persistent problem of getting households to separate their trash. In some populations it is due to lack of motivation. In others, it is a simple lack of education about the benefits. This is where NGOs shine (or could shine) NGOs have a more direct relationship with the public and, if appropriately subsidized, could produce educational materials for the general public to increase awareness. This is already done to some extent but needs more support from the government.

The article touches on the role of government in educating and marketing. MHC itself shows little interest in reviving a public option for composting due to earlier failures. They appear to, at most, halfheartedly promote private endeavors. Their support of industries that are involved in Waste-to-Energy processes like pelletization stands in direct conflict with compost production. Pellets require mixed waste, whereas, compost requires pure organic waste. In this way, Agriculture and sustainable environmental practices take a back seat to energy production.

Finally, the article takes a look at Bengaluru (Bangalore) by way of comparison to Hyderabad in terms of its organic SWM initiatives. Bangalore comes up consistently in articles I read on this subject and I’m beginning to think it should be on my itinerary for my trip in September. It appears to be a hub for Biotech, agriculture and environmental studies and it is home to several successful compost companies and initiatives.

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On another note, the weather is finally consistently warm now, which means I’ll finally be starting my ‘One Piece’ project as well as visiting my local Waste-to-Energy/Compost facility. Updates to come soon! =)

-Ashley