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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0918.022 2012-2014 Margaret Wille �t�0F.14 Phone No. Hilo: (808)961-8027 Council Member o°�' +•, Phone No. Waimea: (808) 887-2043 District 9-North and South Kohala ������' Fax No.: (808)887-2072 E-Mail: mwille @co.hawaii.hi.us ,TF•OFNF'� HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL County of Hawai`i Hawaii County Building Holomua Center West Hawaii Civic Center Bldg.A 25 Aupuni Street 64-1067 Mamalahoa Highway, Suite C-5 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy. Hilo, Hawai? 96720 Waimea, Hawaii 96743 Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i,96740 p n is O C'-) C_ :C7 C= C7 TO: J Yoshimoto, Chair 2 And Members of the Hawaii County Council M C4 D FROM: Margaret Wille, Council Member CD DATE: June 30, 2014 SUBJECT: Additional Information for Resolution 452-14 Please find attached a copy of"Recycling and Waste to Energy: The Basics by Dr. Allen Hershkowitz for reference during the Resolution 452-14 discussion on July 1, 2014. Thank you. MW/dh an Comm.N 8 Ref.To• P x W.Dated L _. . Serving the Interests of the People of Our Island Hawai`i County Is An Equal Opportunity Provider And Employer Recycling and Waste to Energy : The Basics Dr. Allen Hershkowitz Senior Scientist Natural Resources Defense Council THE EARTHS BEST DEFENSE Every category of waste has its proper disposal route . Government policy and private investment should encourage the proper routing of all materials . Municipal Waste is Not Renewable Fuel Most of the materials found in municipal solid waste (MSW) cannot be considered a renewable fuel. Wind, sunlight and water are renewable, but not the vast majority of the components of MSW. Here is the characterization of MSW according to the EPA for 2009: Plastics 12.3% Metals 8.6% Glass 4.8% Paper 28.2% Food scraps 14. 1% Yard waste 13.7% Wood 6.5% Rubber, Textiles, Leather 8.3% Other 3.5% The Majority of MSW Should Be Recycled About 75% - 80%, of the materials that makeup MSW should be recycled for ecological and economic reasons. The non-renewable petroleum, ores, minerals and other materials that comprise MSW, and that are refined and manufactured through polluting processes that rely on the use of fossil fuels, are not renewable fuels. About 12% of all MSW is currently combusted in the U.S. for energy recovery, (as of 2009). Of that amount, NRDC would estimate that more than half of all the material being sent to existing combustors is either recyclable, compostable, non-renewable, or non-combustible. These materials should be diverted away from combustors through a process we call "fuel cleaning". m Plastics ( 12 . 3% of MSW) Plastics are petroleum and are not a renewable fuel. r r_ Some are made from natural gas, and a small amount might be made from coal. Although plastics contain about 12,000 Btus/lbs, they are fossil fuels and cannot be classified as a renewable energy source. Petroleum based plastics should be recycled. Recycling one ton of plastics produces 100 times more jobs than combustion. Metals (8. 6% of MSW) Metals are made from non-renewable ores and minerals. They cannot be classified as a renewable fuel. Nor are they well suited for combustion. Metals are low in Btus (300 Btus/Ibs compared with 12,000 Btus/Ibs for plastics) and should be recycled. It is as a secondary raw material at the manufacturing sector, not in a combustor, that metals provide the greatest energy benefit. Recycling one ton of metals produces 1700 times more jobs than combustion. Glass (4. 8% of MSW) Glass is manufactured using non-renewable fossil fuels, and is made from a non- renewable, albeit currently plentiful raw material. Glass is also not ideally suited for energy recovery. It is not high in Btus, containing only 60 Btus/lbs. Glass should be recycled. Recycling one ton of glass produces 785 times more jobs than combustion. ( 28 . 2% of MSW) Paper, for many reasons other than those relating to energy calculations, should be recycled. We can debate whether all forests should be considered renewable, but certainly many that are being destroyed for paper making are ecologically rare and biologically irreplaceable. The manufacture of paper involves the use of non-renewable energy, and pulp and paper mills are classified as a "major" source of hazardous air emissions by the EPA. Most consumers would not consider as "renewable energy" or "environmentally preferable" a fuel whose production engenders the emission hazardous air pollutants (or wipes out vast tracts of natural forests, consuming more water than virtually any other industrial process). Paper should be recycled and should not be considered a renewable fuel. Recycling one ton of paper produces 410 times more jobs than combustion. Food Scraps ( 14 . 1 % of MSW) Food scraps that cannot be recovered for redistribution should be composted or sent to a sewage treatment plant. They are high in moisture, not particularly high in Btus: Plastics = 12,000 Btus/Ibs Food = 2,000 Btus/Ibs VS. Paper = 7,200 Btus/Ibs Wood = 8,000 Btus/Ibs Food waste is also high in nitrogen, a GHG pollutant when emitted from waste combustors. Yard Waste ( 13 . 7% of MSW) Yard waste should be composted. Its Btu value is only 2,800 Btus/Ibs, but let' s assume for argument' comprised entirely of woody debris at 8,000 Btus/Ibs, (which it isn' considered renewable and combusted for energy recovery. s sake that it is t), and can be Wood ( 6 . 5% of MSW) Wood recovered from MSW should be combusted for energy recovery, it' s one of the only materials that is suited for this process. Wood is generally a renewable resource (see qualification about certain ecologically rare forests referenced above) and is combustible, producing ?,000 Btus/lbs. Moreover, wood recovered from the MSW stream cannot be composted due to contaminants and should not be landfilled due to the emissions it causes. Rubber, Textiles & Leather ( 8 . 3% of MSW) Rubber, Textiles, and Leather are manufactured using fossil fuels and other non- renewable resources. Given the nature of their manufacture, they cannot be considered a renewable fuel despite their high Btu value, ranging from 7,500 Btus/Ibs (textiles and leather) to 10,000 Btus/Ibs (rubber). These materials should be recycled or composted, and the portion not recovered for recycling can be considered for combustion for energy recovery, but cannot be considered renewable fuel. Recycling rubber and leather produces 920 times more jobs than combustion. The Only Non - Recyclable Renewable Waste Options for Fuel Wood and a portion of yard wastes are the only portions of the municipal waste stream that can be considered a non-recyclable renewable fuel. If we inappropriately include all yard wastes in this category and correctly include all wood, they together total 20.2% of the waste stream (an over-estimate). That is why NRDC estimates that about 80% of the MSW stream is either recyclable; made from a non-renewable resource, or is otherwise not well suited for combustion due to low Btus (or a combination of all three). NOTE: Even if we also unrealistically added in the entire 3.5% of the non-descript "other" category of MSW as being entirely a renewable material, combustible, and not recyclable, that would still only amount to 23.7% of the waste stream as being suitable for combustion, and that includes the assumption that all yard wastes should be combusted, none composted. f repared for BLU EEN A L L I A °, C E $IueGreen Alliance www bk&-greenaiWnce.org r ;k �i Teamster mvw tevmster.org SEW SEIU www seiu.arg 6NRDC NRDC wwwr►rdc.org RECYCLINGN MRKS. Recycling Works www.recyctingworks campaign.org 0 g a i a GAIA www.no-burn.org More Jobs, Less Pollution: Growing the Recycling Economy in the U.S. Prepared by:7e11us Institute with Sound Resource Management Job Production Estimates by Management Activity for MSW Manufacturing MATERIALS Jobs per 1000 tons Paper & 4.16 Paperboard Plastics 10.30 Rubber & 9.24 Leather Reuse/ Remanufacture Jobs per 1000 tons N/A 7.35 Tellus Institute, "More Jobs, Less Pollution Report", November 2011, page 34 Incineration Jobs per 1000 tons 0.10 0.10 Jobs Created by Recycling Moving from the current 33% national recycling rate to a 75% national recycling rate would create 1.5 million new jobs. Power Plant Capital and Operating Costs Energy Overnight Capital Source Cost (2010 $/kW) Coal - Single Unit $3,167 Advanced PC Coal - Single Unit $5,348 IGCC with CCS Wind - $2,438 Onshore Wind Solar - Large $4,755 Photovoltaic MSW $8,232 Fixed O&M Cost (2010 $/kW) $35.97 $69.30 $28.07 $16.70 $373.76 U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Updated Capital Costs Estimates for Electricity Generation Plants", November 2010, page 7 Climate Change Emissions Reductions from Diversion M KI 400 UJI N 0 U 3+00 47 12 200 III u 2008 2030 Base Case 2030 Green Economy Scenario KEY ■C&E] MSW Tellus Institute, "More Jobs, Less Pollution Report", November 2011, page 47 Greenhouse Gas Emissions MSW 1016 (from fossil fuel-based products only) Coal 2249 Oil 1672 Natural Gas 1135 Recycling/ -3800 Composting (pounds of CO2 emissions reductions per ton) Recycling Take Back Legislation & Extended Producer Responsibility At the heart of America' s municipal-garbage problem is the fact that the consumer- products industry passes off to local governments, or "externalizes", the economic and environmental consequences of the waste its products create. Internalizing municipal waste-management costs associated with consumer goods with recycling take back or Extended Producer Responsibility legislation is an effective way to reduce the tax burden associated with the disposal of municipal solid waste. The nation' s economy would be well served if municipal waste was reclassified as manufacturer' s waste and the waste itself became the financial obligation of the consumer-products companies. This logic conforms with fundamental economic principles: those responsible for costs in competitive content have an incentive to manage them efficiently. Producer Responsibility Legislation in Europe All light-green areas indicate countries with producer responsibility legislation for packaging and paper as of 2011. _ Iceland j Great Britainr 0. D f! a 0 Ireland ether ern Luxem un 0 Spain �I © StewardEdge C �2 ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL upI ,,global environmental patkagmg and produfl ctPwardtihip repwamenl< G _, r Inlan stonia Poland 6 4ech >tri 6 Malta RC )6B Vece HOW Ukraine iia ia� Turkey Cyprus Producer Responsibility legislation in Canada Steward[ E, 'PI symbols means in place or shed symbols gram has been or is under tion © Current Canadian Models for Jurisdiction Industry Cost Share Trends Ontario 50% of verified Government announced municipal net costs transition to 100% industry pay Quebec 50% of negotiated Government announced municipal costs transition to 100% industry pay Manitoba 80% of calculated Launched April 1 , 2010 municipal costs Saskatchewan (Proposed) 75% of costs TBD � ) Regulation expected soon British Columbia 100% of municipal costs Regulation expected soon g p ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING KV, � v 9 n 9 9 an INTERNATIONAL v oaua+cewanftnip requirement, EPR in Latin America EPR for packaging in Uruguay is currently being implemented Brazil' s President signed the Omnibus Waste law, which created a National Policy on Solid Waste. The bill calls for EPR of packaging. A committee to oversee implementation of an EPR program has been formed. It is expected that regulations to create producer take-back programs should be adopted later this year. Argentina and Mexico piloting packaging waste integrated management systems in some regions Kup, ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL I Specialists in global envirnnmental packaging and product stewardOip re,, v, ent� Producer Responsibility Legislation Elsewhere Turkey Packaging fees or eco-tax Deposits on one-way containers Packaging fee and deposit in place. Deposit containers not subject to fees. Eco-tax and fee in place. Containers subject to both regulations. r pan r Sout Korea J Taiwan L o J o • P ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL Case Study : Rhode Island EPR Savings • Rhode Island is currently exploring an EPR program for Packaging and Printed Paper in which producers and first importers for consumer products companies would be required to take on the costs of municipal recycling of packaging and printed paper. • Rhode Island municipalities stand to save approximately $17.6 million annually if producers and first importers take on the costs associated with the curbside collection and drop-off recycling programs of their packaging and paper product waste. N RDC THE EARTHS BEST DEFENSE Dr. Allen Hershkowitz Senior Scientist ahershkowitz@nrdc.org Read more on my blog: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ahershkowitz/