2006 Material Recovery Facility (MRF) Assessment
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Waste Monitoring Program 2006 Material Recovery Facility (MRF) Assessment November 2006 PREPARED BY: Cascadia Consulting Group, Inc. In cooperation with WIH Resource Group Acknowledgments This study would not have been possible without the cooperation and assistance of the management and operators of the four Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) who generously agreed to participate. Studies of this kind are an imposition on their time and their cooperation is greatly appreciated. Special thanks are given to the following MRFs which hosted and assisted sampling activities in addition to providing tonnage data and market information. Allied Waste, Rabanco Recycling Center (Third & Lander) in Seattle, Waste Management, Cascade Recycling Center in Woodinville, Smurfit-Stone, Renton Reclamation Plant, in Renton, and Waste Connection, Recycling Center in Tacoma. Market information and quantity and composition data resulting from the collection and sorting of material samples at each of the MRFs was obtained under confidentiality agreements and is not presented within this report. Instead, the data from individual facilities was aggregated. Thanks to the numerous material brokers, end-users, and industry experts for their time, insight, and information on recycled commodity markets and specifications. And finally, thank you King County and City of Seattle staff for assistance in identifying a separate sorting location. Table of Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................................i Material Flow and Associated Issues .........................................................................................................................i Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................................. iii Incoming Stream .................................................................................................................................................. iii Residual Stream................................................................................................................................................... iii Product Stream ....................................................................................................................................................iv Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................................v Issue 1: The adverse impact of glass shards and fines.........................................................................................v Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................v Issue 2: Contamination in incoming streams.......................................................................................................vi Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................................vi Issue 3: The loss of recyclables in the residual streams ......................................................................................vi Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................................vi Issue 4: Prohibitives in product streams.............................................................................................................. vii Recommendations .............................................................................................................................................. vii Issue 5: Loss of recyclables in product streams.................................................................................................. vii Recommendations .............................................................................................................................................. vii Section 1 : Introduction and Objectives..........................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Objectives ...................................................................................................................................................1 Section 2 : Summary of Methods...................................................................................................................................2 Section 3 : Findings........................................................................................................................................................4 3.1 Quantities and Composition Results by Material Stream............................................................................4 3.1.1 Interpreting the Results ..........................................................................................................................4 3.1.2 Recyclability Groupings..........................................................................................................................4 3.1.3 Quantities and Composition of Incoming Material..................................................................................5 3.1.4 Quantities and Composition of Residual Material...................................................................................8 3.1.5 Quantities and Composition of Select Products ...................................................................................11 3.2 MRF Assessment......................................................................................................................................23 3.2.1 Analysis of Incoming Stream................................................................................................................23 3.2.2 Analysis of Residual Stream ................................................................................................................24 3.2.3 Analysis of Product Stream..................................................................................................................25 Section 4 : Conclusions................................................................................................................................................29 Section 5 : Issues and Recommendations...................................................................................................................32 5.1 Issue 1: The adverse impact of glass shards and fines ...........................................................................34 5.1.1 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................34 5.2 Issue 2: Contamination in incoming streams ...........................................................................................35 5.2.1 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................35 5.3 Issue 3: The loss of recyclables in the residual streams...........................................................................35 5.3.1 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................35 5.4 Issue 4: Prohibitives in product streams ...................................................................................................36 5.4.1 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................36 5.5 Issue 5: The loss of recyclables in product streams .................................................................................36 5.5.1 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................................36 Section 6 : Barriers to Meeting Performance Standards..............................................................................................38 APPENDIX A: MATERIAL DEFINITIONS APPENDIX B: DETAILED METHODOLOGY APPENDIX C: COMPOSITION CALCULATIONS APPENDIX D: FIELD FORMS APPENDIX E: REGIONAL MRF CAPACITY ANALYSIS Table of Tables Table 1: Material Groupings by Recyclability .................................................................................................................5 Table 2: Estimated Composition and Tons of Incoming Material, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons) ....................7 Table 3: Estimated Composition and Tons of Residual Material, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons)....................10 Table 4: Estimated Composition and Tons of Newspaper Product, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons) ................13 Table 5: Estimated Composition and Tons of Mixed Paper Product, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons) ..............16 Table 6: Estimated Composition and Tons of PETE Product, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons).........................19 Table 7: Estimated Composition and Tons of Glass Product, Four Puget Sound MRFs (2005 tons) .........................22 Table of Figures Figure 1. Summary of Material Streams, Issues, and Recommendations .....................................................................ii