INCREASING
DIVERSION IN MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENCES
Tuesday,
June 15, 1999, Culver City
Executive
Summary
Recycling
Can Control Disposal Costs
Joan
Satt
,
Sanitation Co-Manager, City of Culver City: Using a variety of education
programs, the Lakeside Village apartment complex in Culver City was able to
eliminate 8 of its 28 trash bin pickups per month. One of the most innovative
approaches Lakeside management uses to get the message out about recycling is
the use of closed circuit television, featuring healthy competition between
buildings.
Multi-Family
Recycling in Redondo Beach: A Flexible Approach
Jon
Emerson
,
Recycling Coordinator, Redondo Beach: We provide stickers and magnets listing
acceptable materials. We found the magnet has a long-term life. We did mail
outreach to all residents for 1998 America Recycles Day, including a pledge
card.
Terri
Funk
,
Seasons Senior Citizen Apartment Manager, Redondo Beach: We have found seniors
are dedicated to recycling. When one recycling bin was repeatedly
contaminated, we posted a sign that if the bin was contaminated, the City would
not pick up the trash and that worked.
Joe
Delaney
,
Solid Waste Manager, City of Santa Monica: We use a 3 prong approach: 1.
Buy-back center at the City Yards, 2. Recycling drop-off locations, 3.
Providing buildings with 95-gallon recycling carts, which are collected along
with the pickups from single family homes.
Rene
Spencer
,
Master Recyler, E. Tseng & Associates: We made 1800 site visits,
representing 18,000 units in unincorporated L.A. County. The majority of
managers indicated they would institute recycling. We found an 8-10%
implementation in the buildings as a result of the outreach. We got a court
commitment to make scavenging cases strong, by having the victim testify in
court.
Tom
Brady
,
Sr. Waste Planner, City of Glendale: We provide a semi-automated system for
multi-family buildings, in which we have hustlers that go into the complex and
bring out the bins to the street (it only costs $28,000 for a hustler route).
Joe
Sloan
,
Director of Market Development, Consolidated Disposal Services: For the
multi-family waste stream, it is much better to commingle trash and recyclables
and separate them in a dirty MRF to get out a higher percentage of recyclables.
This also eliminates the problem of finding space for the recycling bins.
Sally
Slaig
,
Customer Relations and Recycling Coordinator, Consolidated Disposal Services:
Tenants actually do want to recycle, and we need to communicate this to the
managers and help them see how it is possible.
Michael
McCartney
,
QLM Consulting: The key to success is to focus on the customer, using a
marketing strategy involving the owners and professional building managers.
Welcome
Kathleen
Gildred
,
SCCED:
This
forum series shares information to help cities run more successful waste
diversion programs to get to 50%. Look at our website (www.scced.org) for
reports of previous conferences and forums. We thank Joan Satt and Culver City
for co-sponsoring this event and for the SCCED Task Force that has helped plan
it.
Recycling
Can Control Disposal Costs
Joan
Satt
,
Sanitation Co-Manager, City of Culver City:
Lakeside
Village's program is an example of a successful apartment recycling program.
The complex has 530 units in 14 buildings. The first obstacle to be overcome,
once the complex decided to implement a recycling program, is where the
recycling receptacles were to be located. Management felt receptacles needed to
be close to the buildings to make recycling convenient. The complex put 90
gallon carts in each building's garage, so that residents could bring their
recyclables down with them as they went to their cars. Keeping the recycling
containers separate from the regular trash also allows maintenance workers an
opportunity to remove contaminated articles as the carts are emptied into
recycling dumpsters. The carts are taken to the main recycling dumpsters by an
individual paid with money saved through the program.
Savings
in refuse fees is the main motivation for a multi-family complex to voluntarily
implement a recycling program. Lakeside Village currently has 24 3-cubic-yard
dumpsters, with 14 for trash, 3 commingled recyclables, 3 mixed paper, and 4
yard waste. Wednesday is the variable dump day. Custodians determine which 6 of
the 14 dumpsters need to be emptied, eliminating 8 dumps per week. Though
Culver City does charge for the commingled and mixed paper dumpsters, the
complex ends up saving upwards of $200 per month. The residents may not see the
cost savings directly, but they do benefit from a well-organized refuse and
recycling collection system, and from certain incentives the Management has
offered for participation in the program.
Even
the best designed multi-family recycling program would not be successful
without resident participation. With constant turnover in apartment complexes,
it is difficult to expect new residents to instantly adapt to what might be to
them an entirely new system. Flyers and posters can easily be ignored in a
community where an individual does not feel attachment to the whole.
Recognizing this, Lakeside took a completely different approach. Using a
closed circuit television system, they could constantly update residents about
changes in operations in the complex, including the collection of recyclables.
Though it is not likely that many residents watch this channel specifically for
new news, it is hoped that an interesting topic may catch their eye as they are
flipping through the channels, and help educate them about the complex's
programs.
Using
catchy phrases and bright pictures, Lakeside delivers information about what
can be recycled and where to take the items. The complex even supports a little
friendly competition by broadcasting the buildings that recycle the most for
any given month and how much money they saved the complex. As an extra
incentive, Lakeside offered additional cable channels if the entire complex
saved enough money through recycling. They were able to add 4 new free channels
to an existing cable package. In the end, everyone benefits from the program.
Recycling
in multi-family complexes is never easy. Management must consider that some
residents do not care where their trash goes just as long as it goes and may
not use the recycling containers correctly. Therefore, there must be a
commitment by management to maintain the system, and to continuously provide
education materials to residents. Lakeside has found innovative ways to do
both, and it is hoped that other complexes in Culver City with the means to do
so will follow their example.
Multi-Family
Recycling in Redondo Beach: A Flexible Approach
Jon
Emerson
,
Recycling Coordinator, Redondo Beach: In Redondo Beach we have 65,000 residents
with 15,000 single family dwellings and 13,000 multi-family units. We began in
1981 recycling for single family houses, and in 1991 began it for multi-family
units. All residents are billed $1.65 per unit per month for recycling and
$0.45 monthly for household hazardous waste (HHW). The hauler is Waste
Management. HHW is collected at city's community hazardous waste collection
facility.
Two
recycling service levels are offered, there are individual bins collected at
the curbside for single family dwellings and for apartment buildings up to 10
units. We also collect Christmas trees.
We
provide two 95-gallon labeled wheeled recycling carts collected from a central
location for buildings with 10-200 units. We also will pick up Christmas trees.
We
provide stickers and magnets listing acceptable materials (we only accept
plastics #1 and #2). We did mail outreach to all residents for 1998 America
Recycles Day, including a pledge card. We paid for the promotion with AB 939
fees. We found the magnet has a long-term life.
The
City web page (www.redondo.org) and telephone hotline provide basic program
information around the clock. The website has a simple menu to get to the
recycling information.
In
April 1998, 22% of our complexes had recycling containers, but in June 1999,
26% have containers. We need to add greenwaste collection (we now do it only
for single family residences). We deliver the container to them. We didn't
try to contact the owners, we just talked with the on-site managers. One
challenge is there are already many blue recycling containers used for personal
storage, rather than recycling. Also blue containers are taken when people
move out. The recycling bins are provided by the franchise waste hauler, who
is required to give recycling containers to all who request it.
The
recycling fee is collected on the tax bill for single family residences. It is
added to the bill sent by haulers to the multi-family residences. We have a
recycling ranger who goes out 20 hours per week and arrests scavengers. We
have public education programs, resulting in a lot of requests for bins from
the smaller complexes.
Culver
City has information on where to order magnets with your information printed on
them, contact Joan Satt.
Terri
Funk
,
Seasons Senior Citizen Apartment Manager, Redondo Beach:
I
manage 150 units for independent seniors 55 and over. We have many requests
from the residents and when a resident approached me about doing a recycling
program, initially I was not favorable. But she eventually convinced me. The
kickoff meeting of residents was well attended at the clubhouse. They meet
there frequently anyway for activities. As long as refreshments are served,
they will all be there.
The
City provided information and we made and distributed flyers many times over a
3 month period and it became popular. We put up signs to not contaminate the
recycling bin, but one bin was repeatedly contaminated. So we posted a sign
that if the recycling bin was contaminated, the City would not pick up the
trash and that worked. We have found seniors are dedicated to recycling. Our
move-in packet has information on recycling.
A
Decade of Multi-Family Recycling in Santa Monica
Joe
Delaney
,
Solid Waste Manager, City of Santa Monica:
Santa
Monica has 7,500 single family units, and 36,000 multi-family units; 80% of the
residents live in multi-family dwellings.
The
City has been working for years to preserve the environment and emphasize
sustainability. In 1987 Deborah Baines started recycling in multi-family
dwellings. Earth Day 1990 was very promising for environmental consciousness.
We added mixed paper, but in the early 1990s the State started cutting funds
available to cities and markets were not great.
Craig
Perkins, who was manager of environment programs, decided to take a
multi-faceted approach.
1.
Since we had many lower income residents, we started a buy-back center at the
City Yards, which still operated by the Allen Company under contract. It makes
money for the City.
2.
We opened 100 recycling drop-off locations in the community. It started with 2
bins and is now to 3 bins, for newspapers, mixed paper, and
bottles/cans/plastics. These are located in alleys, and near some stores.
3.
We provided some buildings with 95 gallon carts, which we collect along with
single family homes in the neighborhood pickup of recyclables, as long as the
manager can police it and roll it out for collection.
Mixed
paper from the recycling drop-off locations is collected by a hauler at a cost
of $123,000 per year. The City collects the bottles and newspapers and sells
them.
The
biggest problems have been with the drop-off locations. People complain about
having recycling bins near their home. Sometimes they look ugly with trash,
refrigerators, etc. piled up around the bins on the ground. When they
complain, we tell them we won't remove the recycling bins, but we will police
the location and pick up the trash. We found that if we eliminate the
recycling zones then we also get complaints from residents who want to recycle.
However,
problems are increasing now. There is different attitude toward recycling
since Earth Day 1990. In 1999 we have a different Santa Monica, with the
Promenade booming, income up, new building projects, etc. We are fortunate
that our policy makers have a good attitude, we are buying green electricity,
using CNG vehicles, expanding the HHW program.
But
the community is changing. We voted in the ability to convert to condominiums.
We have found owners take a different perspective than renters. They not want
trash or noisy recycling bins around their building. The Costa Hawkins bill
allowed owners to raise rents on vacant units to the market value. This is
changing Santa Monica. A 1-bedroom apartment, which had $650 average rent
under rent control, is now $1200-2000. This will bring in affluent people who
don't have time to go to recycling locations.
We
have begun a pilot recycling program testing commingled containers in 600
single and multi-family residences, with individual containers on the property,
and fully-automated recycling collection.
Q:
How would you start recycling zones now?
A:
It would be ok in some communities, as long as they are not under people's
bedroom windows (because some people dump bottles late at night). They would
not work in densely populated areas.
Q:
What is your diversion rate?
A:
We get a low diversion rate, less than 40% of people in multi-family units
participate. We get 5,000 tons diverted annually from the zones, including
3,500 tons for mixed paper by contractor.
Q:
What about a variable can rate?
A.
Pasadena implemented "pay as you throw" in 1991 and it worked there, but it is
a little complicated in multi-family situations. Multi-family complexes are
charged a flat rate per unit. It was reduced from $9/month to $6/month plus a
container charge. Now it is reduced to $3/month plus a container charge, and
they can get a lower rate if they recycle. We need a clean co-mingled
recycling bin. But not everyone wants variable can rates and there can be
problems. Some Councilmembers say, "it seems your system is not user
friendly." For example, Beverly Hills has a majority multi-family using
300-gallon containers. To go to variable can rates would mean going to
95-gallon containers. That would increase collection costs, plus you would
need to add personnel to handle customer phones plus accounting costs. It
would cost $1.2 million to implement just for the new containers plus hundreds
of thousands in administrative costs annually.
Apartment
Buildings Technical Assistance Program: Results & Recommendations
Rene
Spencer
,
Master Recyler, E. Tseng & Associates:
Since
1996 the L.A. County Department of Public Works has implemented a theme of
"Recycling Today for a Better Tomorrow." In unincorporated L.A. County there
is open competition among haulers. Recycling is not mandatory, but haulers
must provide it if requested. Haulers must provide recycling bins free of
charge, but may charge a non-discriminatory fee to cover the cost of additional
staff, vehicles etc.
We
found a wide range of attitudes across unincorporated L.A. County (population
over 1 million). Some multi-family units do recycling well, some throw trash
out of the second story window in the general direction of the trash bin.
Edelman
Public Relations has developed a comprehensive public education program with
PSAs, speaking events, booths at festivals, etc. Relative to Christmas trees,
Master Recyclers distributed flyers and door hangers to managers of
multi-family units as well as churches, community groups, and community
centers. They also had signs at Christmas tree sales lots and hangers on
trees. The result was 350,000 trees recycled in 71 communities, but this was
only for a portion of unincorporated L.A. County.
We
have investigated the potential for multi-family waste diversion by conducting
site visits and uating the potential for materials recovery.
Challenges
for the future include promoting county-wide Christmas tree recycling and
working on scavenging. For L.A. County to meet the 50% mandate, we need the
cooperation of multi-family managers. We have found most of the owners and
managers receptive to recycling. Some even do composting on site. We found
the tenants were enthusiastic. We made a follow-up call subsequent to our
visit, to encourage them to call the hauler and arrange for recycling bins.
We
need to do more outreach to haulers, holding workshops to update on activities
with haulers.
The
biggest barriers are cost, space constraints, scavengers, and vector rodent
problems. But the benefits will be to prolong the life of landfills which will
keep the disposal costs lower in the long range. We organized a March 1999
workshop on scavenging to stop organized theft from curbside bins. We found a
public-private partnership in reporting theft of recyclables necessary and
effective. On June 3 it was recommended by court representatives that in order
to make the cases strong, the victim (either L.A. County or the hauler) should
be present to give testimony in court. We learned it is important to keep good
records of warnings and vehicle license numbers. In addition, we found
scavenging is sometimes related to gang activity and credit card fraud.
We
held presentations in residences and found the tenants do want to participate,
and can be educated. There may be some residences where it won't work. The
majority indicated they would institute recycling. We found an 8-10%
implementation in the buildings as a result of the outreach, but we didn't get
tonnage reports. L.A. County is expected to reach the 50% goal.
Q:
Are people with more education and income more willing to recycle than lower
income people?
A:
There is no general rule, each property has a different personality.
Q:
How do they collect Christmas trees?
A:
They are put at curbside on a specific day and picked up by the waste hauler.
Q:
What materials did you distribute?
A:
A recycling tool kit with a notice for tenants, a poster for common areas,
brochures in English and Spanish, and a notice for laundry rooms. They can
request copies of the tool kit.
Q:
What about other languages?
A:
The county could provide the information in other languages, but we are
developing materials with pictures that can communicate to everyone without
words.
Q:
What was the response from the haulers?
A:
We don't know yet. It's too early to determine overall response of the haulers.
Q:
What about space?
A:
We do a facility walk throughs and usually can point out space for the bins.
Q:
What is being recycled?
A:
L.A. County is doing mixed paper, bottles, cans, and plastics. It is looking
into cardboard.
Recycling
in Glendale
Tom
Brady
,
Sr. Waste Planner, City of Glendale, also CAW & CRRA:
Glendale
has about 47,000 dwelling units in complexes with 5 or more units and 8,300
dwelling units in buildings with 2 to 4 units. We started a semi-automated
collection program for buildings with 5 or more units in 1990. The contractor,
BFI, was required to provide 100-gallon carts with pickups for a set
fee/pickup, with paper in one cart and cans/bottles in the other cart. Program
costs were roughly $400,000/year. In 1997 the City decided to take over the
program, retaining the containers and trucks. We are using hourly workers and
spending $110,000 annually on labor. We would like to integrate it with fully
automated citywide collection and have completed half the City in that effort.
The
new automated program uses primarily 100-gallon carts for greenwaste, trash and
recyclables. Our plan is to use the same trucks to collect the single-family
and multi-family units. In order to accommodate the semi-automated
multi-family stops, we would use small bin-handling ("hustler") trucks to go
into the complexes and bring the carts to the curb, and later return them. The
net impact would be one additional automated truck route and 2 hustler routes
at a combined capital and labor cost of roughly $200,000/year.
Recycling
currently occurs in 46% of the dwellings with 5 or more units. It is difficult
to communicate with a very transient population, with large numbers of Spanish
and Armenian-speakers. Most of our informational materials are printed in our
three primary languages.
One
of the reasons for our decreased costs since taking over the program is that
BFI had an incentive to over-service the carts, emptying them when they were
less than half full.
While
there are plans to make the City bid for the multi-family program against
private haulers, similar to the Phoenix model, we hope to delay any such
bidding until we integrate our programs.
Q.
Are
you using alternative fuel vehicles?
A.
There
were too many problems with our methanol truck so it was converted to diesel.
We have no current plans for alternative fuel refuse trucks and believe that
our current fleet replacement will reduce our emissions over 95%.
Q.
What
is your rate structure?
A.
Multi-family
dwelling units pay $6.45/month, plus the landlord pays for a below-market bin
rental charge. As a result we service 80% of apartment units but only 15% of
businesses whose bin rental rates are above market. We also charge an 11% AB
939 fee on private haulers.
The
new automated recycling program will allow the commingling of all recyclables.
All
new buildings built since 1990 have to have a room for the automated recycling
containers.
We
plan to offer automated commercial recycling and to integrate the collection
with the residential programs, increasing the efficiency of collection.
We
now have a small MRF/buyback center but have purchased land for a larger
facility next to our yard.
Q.
What
about vacancies?
A.
If
the unit is vacant, there is no collection of the $6.45/month unit fee but the
landlords still pay the bin rental fees.
Implementing
Programs, Overcoming Barriers: A Hauler Perspective
Joe
Sloan
,
Director of Market Development, Consolidated Disposal Services:
The
creation of MRFs were largely driven by multi-family generators. We operate
both clean and dirty MRFs. Source separation gives people an opportunity to
participate, but it is not efficient use of resources. It is better to
commingle trash and recyclables and separate them in a dirty MRF to get out a
higher percentage of recyclables. There is also the problem of space for bins,
especially in older areas. It is best to throw it all in one bin and we do the
sorting and processing for you. The total system cost for this approach is
lower. This is because it is more efficient to invest in and operate recycling
sorting systems than it is to run two trucks, collecting two streams, one of
which (the "recyclables") must still be further processed.
Sally
Slaig
,
Customer Relations and Recycling Coordinator, Consolidated Disposal Services:
Many property managers say our tenants won't participate, but the tenants
actually do want to recycle, and we need to communicate this to the managers
and help them see how it is possible.
We
have prepared handouts on what can be recycled. The list can be put on a
magnet for the refrigerator. We can commingle everything on the accepted
materials list and it works for us.
Some
property managers say the recycling containers are ugly and people will see
them, so we say that we can provide a freshly painted one for them. We tell
them if they not do it, it will cost them more for trash pickup.
In
one complex, the janitorial service emptied the recycling containers on
Wednesdays. They would notice if the bins were empty and knock on the doors of
those people and ask for their recyclables. We met with the janitorial staff,
and told them the saving on waste hauling, if the recycled materials are clean
of garbage. We are not concerned with a small amount of contamination, except
food waste. We suggest people rinse bottles to keep vermin out, but otherwise
that is not needed.
We
have found it important to have the recycling containers near the trash
containers, or the elevators or in garages, and where it is convenient to place
the recyclables.
You
need a point person on the site. We suggest locked containers to reduce
scavenging.
Communication
is our best marketing tool. We use other tenants as interpreters for those who
don't speak English.
Q:
Isn't recycling cost lower than waste handling, because even if there is no
value in the materials, they don't pay disposal fees?
A:
Yes, collecting a 3 yard bin costs $75/month, About $25 is the landfill
disposal cost, and about $50 for transportation. If there were a net market
value for recyclables, we could reduce the transportation cost below $50. If
they are paying over $30/ton for disposal, then recycling is economical. If
you have to go to a transfer station, the cost is more. We have found that
multi-family recyclables have more contamination, about 20-25%, while
individual family curbside has only 8-12% contamination, so the cost of
handling the recyclables is more for multi-family. The bottom line depends on
the value of the recycled materials. Mixed paper is worth $45/ton, and the
processing costs $45/ton.
The
Essentials of Multi-Family Recycling: A Marketing Approach
Michael
McCartney
,
QLM Consulting:
We
have been involved in multi-family recycling since 1994. We started in 7
cities in Marin County and got the average of 25% diversion in multi-family
units up to 30%, with some complexes over 50%. In my experience the range in
multi-family is from 22% to 50%.
Public
education is important. The key to success is to focus on the customer. We
suggest a marketing strategy involving the owners and professional building
managers. The first step is to analyze the demographics of the community and
determine the message and the medium for the target audience. The age range of
18-34 is very difficult, older is easier.
We
recommend charting out the demographics to reach all age groupings, languages,
income levels, etc. You need to develop a site-specific approach. You should
survey the attitudes toward recycling. Analyze existing communications, and
community gatherings. Can you publish recycling columns in newsletters, etc.?
You need to understand the site layout and types of communication available.
Then
create a plan and have the on-site manager give you feedback. Always set up
meetings with the community, even if the manager is not on site. Develop plans
to customize the approach for that apartment complex, using their logo on your
literature if you can scan it in.
We
have prepared a managers media kit, with printed materials, signage, stuff for
kids, recycling totes, etc. San Jose has choices of a 7-gallon or an 11-gallon
tote.
You
need to establish policies for:
*
Residents moving in and out (usually 15-20% turnover per year), such as
orientation for new residents.
*
Vendors, including landscapers, construction and repair, painters, pool
maintenance, etc.
*
Contamination
*
Scavenging
You
need to develop a problem resolving plan for each issue.
How
not
to succeed is:
*
Assume individual family curbside information materials work for multi-family.
*
Assume turnover rate always be the same.
*
Assume the program is self-fulfilling.
*
Assume if you hear nothing, everything is ok.
A
good method is to manage by exception (look at each project and learn from your
exceptions).
Suggested
framework for increasing diversion:
*
Establish feedback loops at every point in the diversion chain.
*
Create, maintain and grow a recycling and reuse system (For example, one
complex in Marin set up a reuse area for cast off appliances, furniture, etc.
If not picked up by someone in the complex after 5 days, it gets hauled away.)
*
Be opportunistic (capitalize on unique opportunities in a complex, such as
closed circuit TV.)
*
Use a continuous improvement approach (The Green Team in San Jose has a lot of
ideas.)
*
Have a flexible marketing plan (Listen to your customers).
Q:
Do you have examples of policies?
A:
We have templates for signage, policies, etc. Send me an email at
mmcqlm@msn.com and ask for it. They are in Microsoft Word or Publisher.
Q:
What about totes?
A:
The problem is that bins often disappear. Some haulers don't like plastic
bags. In Santa Ana the tote was the size of a small filing box, 12 inches
wide. Some complexes use 11-gallon totes. I like the 7-gallon size that fits
a paper grocery sack.
Q:
You can get more tonnage from reuse programs, especially with high turnover,
you get 20% diversion by weight from reuse programs.
A:
I agree, Marin County gets 22% diversion from reuse. They even gathered up
used trophies and put new names on them and made awards for buildings with high
recycling rates.
Sacramento
has a recycling ordinance. They got the stakeholders together, including the
haulers, owners, and tenants, and agreed on an ordinance as the way to go,
Kathleen
Gildred
:
SCCED will be putting on forums every few months this year. Send us your
email address. We can send good ideas from you out to our emails list. Share
your successes.