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Honda (NYSE: HMC) announced today that 10 of its 14 North American manufacturing plants are now operating with zero waste to landfill, while the remaining four plants are functioning with “virtually zero” waste to landfill.

The announcement marks a significant milestone on the company’s “Green Factory” initiative.

Honda has dramatically reduced the waste it sends to landfills – from 62.8 pounds in fiscal year 2001 to an estimated 1.8 pounds per automobile in the current fiscal year. Among all of its 14 plants in North America, Honda now sends less than one-half of 1% of operating waste to landfills.

Remaining waste product is either recycled or used for energy recovery, the company says.

Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, in Lincoln, Ala., became the first zero-waste-to-landfill auto plant in North America at the outset of production in 2001. Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, in Greensburg, Ind., also started production as a zero-waste-to-landfill plant in 2008.

Since the establishment of zero-waste-to-landfill production in its Alabama plant in 2001, Honda has undertaken a major initiative at plants throughout the region to eliminate landfill waste. To understand what comprised each plant’s landfill waste, Honda associates went “Dumpster diving,” looking at the composition of the waste material resulting from all of its production activities.

On the basis of these findings and subsequent investigations, Honda associates at all 14 plants in North America have identified and implemented hundreds of waste-reduction and waste-recycling initiatives.

These initiatives run the gamut, from the reduction of offal (metal scrap) in stamping processes, to improved parts packaging for ease of recycling, to the minimization of paper and plastic waste from cafeterias.

As a result of these efforts over the past 10 years, the company has prevented an estimated 4.4 billion pounds of waste material from being sent to landfills, which is equivalent to the amount of household waste produced by 2.8 million Americans, roughly the population of Chicago, in a single year.

Many of the waste-reduction and recycling activities were undertaken through Honda’s associate involvement programs, including its “NH Circle” quality circles, where teams of associates throughout the company engage in an annual competition to improve efficiency, cost and waste reduction.

Examples of waste reduction initiatives include:

Engine plants in Ohio, Alabama and Canada are reusing virtually all leftover sand from aluminum and ferrous metal casting operations. In FY2010, the three plants recycled a total of 9,400 tons of sand, which is used as mulch and landscaping material, and in concrete products.The Marysville Auto Plant initiated a program to reduce the amount of offal by reducing the size of steel sheets used to stamp new body parts. The program, which significantly reduces the environmental impact of transporting and recycling the steel, is now being adopted by other Honda factories in North America around the world. Honda Power Equipment in Swepsonville, N.C., initiated a closed-loop system for recycling aluminum scrap from the machining trimming process, melting the scrap into ingots that are recycled into die-cast operations.

The East Liberty, Ohio, auto plant built a recycling bin for bolts, other unused fasteners and parts packaging, enabling the factory to recycle more than 22 tons of steel each year.

Within the past year, all four Honda plants in Ohio completed their initiative to eliminate more than 500 metric tons of cafeteria waste produced annually. The plants joined with other Honda plants in North America in transitioning to washable dishware and to disposing of solid waste through composting, recycling and energy recovery.The Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio, plants also recently began washing and reusing thousands of plastic caps each day that are used to protect parts during shipping.

The only two remaining landfill waste streams in all of Honda’s North American production activities are: paper, plastic and food waste from associate break rooms and cafeterias at Honda’s Mexico automobile and motorcycle plants, where there exists no more environmentally responsible means of disposal; and a byproduct of the paint pretreatment process for aluminum body panels at both the East Liberty and Marysville, Ohio, auto plants, which, due to EPA regulations, is non-recyclable.

Honda says it is working with the EPA to identify an alternative means of disposal.

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Although in 2009 the current concept of “end of waste” protocols did not exist in any real form, this CIWM posting did provide some help to the waste industry to alleviate concerns that gasification gases could be burnt without all the complexities of the WID applying.

SOURCE: CIWM, FEBRUARY 2009

Recent publicity has highlighted the amounts of food waste generated in the UK. The legal drivers enforcing the diversion of biodegradable material (like food) from landfill mean that composting, Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) are coming increasingly to the fore. Indeed, the new waste framework directive provides clear focus on the need to encourage separate collection of food waste and other “bio-wastes” so that it can be treated properly and used to generate safe products.

The extent to which these activities are likely to be bound in “waste” red tape has been highlighted as a result of two recent developments.

The first is the European Court’s December judgement in the Lahti Energia case to the effect that a plant burning gas produced from the gasification of waste was burning “a product having the characteristics of a fuel… generated from waste”. It was therefore a product rather than a waste. (Crucially, the gas had been “purified” by filtration to remove solid particles.)

The second is the EA’s recent clarification of its position on AD of manure and slurry. It asserts that “the biogas produced from the AD of manure and slurry will be a waste”, although recognises that much will depend on the extent to which the gas needs further treatment prior to being used as a fuel.

The law therefore is and remains that product status depends on whether the product compares favourably enough to its virgin equivalent.

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Source: CIWM, December 2010

The legal definition of “waste” has always been a bit of a nightmare for those in the industry who seek innovatively to do intelligent things with waste and other “residues”, but struggle to make a case for “product”’ status.  Where commercially useful residues are deemed by regulators to be “waste”, then they are a regulatory burden and of reduced commercial value.

The purpose of this short article is to reduce the complexities of the legal definition of waste to their essential legal framework, and thereby (hopefully) encourage operators to be more ambitious about developing their processes and products, and thus engaging with and overcoming the continuing complexities of the law.

This is easy to say, harder to do.  The law has never been helpful, and as we get to the end of 2010 there seems to be more law, but not necessarily more clarity.  So what is the law?

Well, it is multi-faceted and, as with anything complex, there are different ways of “cutting” it.  I think it is useful to see it as essentially broken down into three strands:

Directive waste

Ultimately, everything rests on the nebulous concept of “discarding”.  Article 3(1) of the revised Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) (the WFD) states that “waste” means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends to discard or is required to discard.

Discarding has been interpreted widely by the European Court, such that you can very easily be discarding something which you sell for a profit!  Fortunately, though, the more recent case law has moved things on considerably.

Article 2 of the WFD is also very important, because it deals with wastes which are excluded from the Directive, and therefore from its regulatory controls.  There are two categories of excluded material:

The new Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2010 reflect these WFD definitions.

Secondary products, production residues and by-products

There is a line of ECJ cases, between 2002 and 2007, where the European Court looked much closer than it had before at the concept of discarding, and developed the helpful concepts of secondary products, production residues and by-products.

In the leading case of Palin Granit (2002), the ECJ was dealing with leftover stone from a massive quarrying operation.  This was also the situation in the later case of AvestaPolarit (2003).  In Palin Granit the leftover stone was ruled to be waste.   In AvestaPolarit, the opposite conclusion was reached.  How come?

The Court defined the basic concept of a “production residue” as something that is not the end product that the manufacturing process directly seeks to produce.  In those cases, the leftover stone was not the primary object of production.  The presumption is that a production residue will be a waste, and that was the ruling in Palin Granit.

However, the Court also opened up the possibility that a production residue might not necessarily be a waste, but might instead be a by-product.  A by-product would not be a waste, provided it was produced as an integral part of the production process, and was to be put to lawful use as a matter of certainty without any further processing.  That was what happened in Avesta Polarit.

Things moved on in the case of Saetti (2004), where the ECJ was asked to give an opinion on whether petroleum coke (a carbon based material produced in the refining of crude oil) was a waste or not.  The Court held that the petroleum coke could not be classified as a production residue at all.  Therefore, the question of by-product did not arise.  The coke was ruled to be a secondary product because it was the result of a technical process choice.

In the so-called “Spanish Pig Manure case”, pig manure used as soil fertiliser as part of a lawful practice of spreading on clearly identified parcels of land was held not to be waste.  Actually, the value of this ruling lies, not so much in its classification of the pig manure, but rather in its dismissal that such a by-product could only be re-used on the site on which it was produced.  In my view, this has positive implications for things like excavated uncontaminated soils in the construction sector.

Finally, Article 5(1) of the WFD attempts to synthesise this case law.  I find the drafting of Article 5(1) concerning in some respects, since some of its wording cuts across the sensible logic of the case law, and fails altogether to deal with secondary products.  We will see whether it causes trouble in practice, but it is a reminder of the volatility of this area of law, and the need to tread warily and under advice.

End of waste

For me, “end of waste” (or “complete recovery” as it was referred to by the ECJ in ARCO Chemie) is recycling par excellence, even where the end product is a fuel (though the framers of the WFD don’t see it that way, which is unfortunate).  I find the lack of any reference to complete recovery in the revised waste hierarchy bemusing and unhelpful.

Still, there is no doubt that the law has moved on.  The ruling of the Court of Appeal in the OSS case, with which I was privileged to be intimately connected, was an overdue sanity check.  It has spawned the quality protocols industry in the UK, and this model has now been expressed at EU level in Article 6 of the WFD.

In the very short space available, I simply record here what are the essential elements of this massively complex area of law.  There is really only one ECJ case, but two excellent UK court authorities, and a remarkably refreshing judgment from the Netherlands which was endorsed here by the Court of Appeal.

The law resides in these court rulings, not in the quality protocols.  The protocol idea is to be welcomed, and the EA and WRAP to be congratulated on what are very useful guidance for those specific waste streams affected.  However, the law is in the court judgments, and in a nutshell the end of waste criteria are that the waste is subjected to “recovery operation”, which produces a distinct marketable product with a guaranteed output product specification which can be used in the same way as an “ordinary” product, with no greater environmental precautions needed nor any greater impact on human health or the environment from using it as you would the ordinary product.  And try not to do anything (e.g. long term storage) that would suggest an intention or requirement to discard.

The real commercial value to be derived from the production of by-products, secondary products or “end of waste” materials, from something hitherto classed as a waste, is usually within reach.  The trick is to approach the matter professionally, systematically and with the proper attention to detail.

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A project in Wewoka, Oklahoma will use landfill gas to fuel a nearby brick factory, reducing approximately 30,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution per year in the process.

The project is being financed by eBay, Esurance, Designtex, Ceres, Brighter Planet, and College of the Atlantic through the purchase of NativeEnergy’s Help Build carbon offsets.

The project developer is landfill gas to energy specialist, Enerdyne Power Systems and the landfill is owned by Sooner Landfill, LLC, a subsidiary of WCA Waste Corporation and WCA of Oklahoma, LLC.

NativeEnergy is a provider of verified carbon offsets and renewable energy credits. NativeEnergy’s Help Build carbon offsets help finance construction of Native American, family farm, and community-based carbon reduction projects.

Wells will be installed at the Wewoka landfill to capture the gas which will be delivered through a half-mile pipeline to the Commercial Brick Corporation’s kilns.

Bob Hartsock, President of Commercial Brick Corporation, said the favorable long-term contract for the gas from the landfill will pay for the investment to retrofit the burners in his kilns and help the company remain competitive in a challenging market.

Jeff Bernicke, President of NativeEnergy, noted: “This project shows that well-planned environmental initiatives can deliver local economic and social benefits too. We’re pleased to play a central role in this project and are thankful for the substantial participation of key customers.”

eBay, Esurance, Designtex, Ceres, Brighter Planet, and College of the Atlantic have already made significant purchases of carbon offsets from the project.

By purchasing NativeEnergy’s Help Build carbon offsets the companies are providing upfront funding to the project and in return they will receive a share of the project’s long-term verified carbon reductions.

The Wewoka Biogas Project is NativeEnergy’s fiftieth Help Build project. (http://landfill-gas.com)

William Brinker, Vice President and Operations Manager of Enerdyne, said:

“This is a perfect example of how to make a small project work. WCA Waste wanted the gas from their project to be put a beneficial use, and Commercial Brick was looking for a way to control their fuel costs. With the two properties adjoining, this was a perfect match! Thanks to the capital and carbon funding provided by NativeEnergy’s Help Build program, we were able to bridge the gap between all of the parties and build a successful project.” 

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Topics

What Federal Regulations Govern Handling and Disposal of Hazardous Chemical Waste.
The Rules for Satellite Accumulation of Hazardous Wastes.
How to Determine If a Waste is Hazardous.
Why It’s So Important to Maintain an Accurate Inventory of All Wastes Generated and to Label All Reaction Byproducts.
How to Minimize Hazardous Waste.
The Optimum Methods of Packaging Waste for Disposal.
How to Select a Waste Disposal Contractor.

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The United Kingdom produces 434 million tons of waste each year. That will fill the Albert Hall each 2 hours.

Householders produce about 30,000,000 tonnes about annually. 73% of this waste goes to landfill, although ninety percent of it actually is recoverable and may be recycled, reused or composted. Landfill remains the principal way of handling most of the waste in the United Kingdom. Landfill tax was introduced in 1996 in an effort to cut the amount of waste going to landfill.

Landfill Gas ( Methane ) One tonne of waste tipped in a landfill produces between two hundred and four hundred cubic metres of landfill gas. Landfill sites released 32% of the UK’s methane emissions in 2009. Methane is about twenty-one times more strong than carbon-dioxide and permitting methane to flee into the atmosphere has heavy planetary warming consequences.

Landfill Leachate During landfill site operation, a liquid known as ‘Leachate ‘ is produced. This is a mix of organic degradation products, liquid waste and rain water. Leachate is intensely variable in composition dependent on the character of the waste in the landfill and the landfill design, but generally it has high organic carbon content, significant amounts of nitrogen and is mostly a little acidic.

Landfills are designed and operate to seal the waste as much as practicable from the encompassing environment. Central to this environmental protection is avoiding groundwater contamination.

Recycle

The more rubbish, waste and junk that gets recycled is the less that has to go to landfill. This in turn means less methane is released, causing less global warming, and less leachate seeping into the earth and damaging our already fragile eco system.

My name is Martin Harris. I am the founder of an eco friendly company called called Eco Rubbish Clearance – http://ecorubbishclearance.co.uk The company was started with an aim to providing a green alternative to conventional skip hire.

Recycling has never been so important. We need to cut back on landfill deposits and find new ways to reuse and recycle unwanted things. Visit our website to find out what the future of waste management looks like. http://ecorubbishclearance.co.uk From small acorns, mighty oaks grow…

Find your Golden Rule, follow its star-like unwavering truth and become guided by it. Whatever your main goal or task, there will be a Golden Rule that applies that will assist you in keeping yourself on track.

Here are 5 of the best Golden Rules that connect with the issue of ratepayer value from their local authority waste facilities.

Golden Rule # 1, is that the waste facility whether it be a Household Waste Recycling Facility (HWRC), a Landfill accepting Household Waste, or other public waste facility such as a Bottle (Bring) Bank (for Bottle Recycling), or a Green or Garden Waste Composting facility open to the public to accept suitable waste, or any other waste facility accepting waste/providing a service to the public, is long opening hours.

The key reason why long opening hours are needed, is that people quite often cannot dispose of their waste during normal office hours. Remember, there are people who need little excuse to fly tip their rubbish in quiet spots all over our towns and countryside. Let’s not give them any excuse to do that..

Golden Rule # 2, The should be ample opportunity for the public to recycle their waste at all waste reception sites. You should be aware that the public are being encouraged to recycle more of their rubbish, all around the world. And you’ll want to take into account that your local authority should be encouraging recycling and they should provide good facilities to help the local people achieve recycling.

Golden Rule # 3, There should be no direct charge to the private users of waste facilities. Businesses, however, are differently treated and should be charged the true cost of disposing of the waste they deposit. This is in our view a good idea because municipal waste sites are funded by the local ratepayers for the health of the community. Waste left dumped and uncollected is as big a health hazard, as say, polluted water – for the general community. The way to prevent that is to allow free use to individuals when disposing waste to municipal waste facilities.

Golden Rule # 4, The managers of all waste-facilities should be given targets for minimizing the quantity of waste they send to landfill. To make this happen some might suggest linking their bonus pay to the waste diversion rate (by recycling), that they achieve, against a set target

Golden Rule # 5, Whatever else happens at any waste facility, the paramount concern must be that it is done safely. These can be dangerous places, and with big wheeled-plant moving around there is potential for people to become crushed, or fall into skips etc. This could be important to you personally as a user of your local waste facility.

Golden Rule # 6, You can accomplish this by very careful design of each waste reception location, coupled with clear training given to the site operatives and suitable supervision, plus close control of the public while they are using the facility.

It can be very important since it would be wrong for anyone to be injured while recycling their waste in a waste facility. We all bear a responsibility to look after others. This may entail you helping the waste management facility staff when they seek to give you instructions to control you, as a member of the public, while they are using the facility.

This could be really critical because as we already said, but will repeat again to make this point clear, for anyone to be injured while recycling their waste in a suitable facility, and especially anyone reading this, would be very unfortunate.

If citizens follow these golden rules to recognize ratepayer value from their local authority waste sites, you’ll find life easier for the community, your town’s or cities progress toward high recycling rates more rapidly and your communities successes more pronounced and frequent.

Uncover ways to understand more fully the service provided at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), or other public waste facility such as a Bottle Bank (for Bottle Recycling), or a Green or Garden Waste Composting facility, by visiting this waste facilities web site.

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