This facility has enabled W+R to take a sizable chunk out of the incoming waste stream and divert it from landfill.
SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Dane County Department of Waste + Renewables (W+R) spun out of the County’s Department of Public Works in 2019, which prior to that, had existed as a Division of Public Works since the 1970s. Today, its mission is to provide environmentally sound and sustainable waste management and renewable energy solutions for current Dane County residents and future generations. This includes looking at waste as a resource to create renewable fuels and the conservation of landfill air space through waste diversion, recycling, and efficient operations. W+R is responsible for the management and operation of Dane County’s only active MSW landfill (~300,000 tons/year), renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities, Clean Sweep (e-waste and household hazardous waste), construction and demolition (C&D) recycling facility (62,000 tons/year throughput), and various other recycling programs.
The Department operates as an “enterprise fund”, which means all W+R operations are funded by the fees charged for services and not by taxpayer dollars. In addition, excess revenue from the sale of RNG helps fund other County initiatives. W+R’s integrated and innovative approach to operations ensures an affordable, long-term waste management system for Dane County.
W+R currently has 35 full-time employees and 50 total staff and has grown steadily over time. This is up from 14 full time employees and 20 total staff in 2012, and W+R expects to continue to grow by one to two people annually for the next 10 years. In addition, W+R currently owns 58 fleet vehicles, including four compactors, five wheel-loaders, four bulldozers, two excavators, two tractors, and a CNG-powered tour bus..
Operating exclusively within Dane County, W+R serves a wide variety of customers—from individual residents disposing of items like old computers to the City of Madison to large private hauling businesses managing hundreds of thousands of tons of material annually, and everything in between. Says Roxanne Wienkes, Deputy Director, “W+R is committed to providing excellent customer service and strives to offer a safe, high-quality experience for all visitors.”
Innovative Strategies
Like many organizations, inflation and rising costs are the largest challenge to operations for W+R. “We are continually seeking ways to cover rising costs while controlling costs for customers and maintaining reliable public services, such as HHW collection,” says John Welch, W + R Director. “One way W+R stays ahead of the curve is due to our status as an ‘enterprise fund,’ which means all of our operations are funded by the fees we charge for services and not by taxpayer dollars. We have also been successful in partnering with private companies to reduce risks and costs. Examples of this include the privately operated C&D MRF and the privately owned and operated compost facility. In addition, excess revenue from the sale of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) extracted from the landfill, generates a budget surplus and helps fund other County initiatives. This integrated and innovative approach to operations ensures an affordable, long-term waste management system for Dane County.”
However, Wienkes says that W+R right now the industry’s main challenges are planning to meet regulation and legislation that is on the horizon, especially with regards to PFAS and measuring and addressing landfill emissions. “W+R is working to get ahead of these things and stay up on most-recent knowledge. Our team members are actively involved in technical advisory committees and local and national industry associations, attending national conferences and by actively researching new technologies.”
Because Dane County is the second largest and fastest growing county in the state of Wisconsin, having added 100,000 residents over the past 10 years, and 180,000 more anticipated by 2050, this growing population has placed increased demand on W+R’s services, causing the Department to look for increasingly more avenues to reduce waste production and increase waste diversion. “The largest effort on this front has been the development of a large-scale C+D recycling facility that today processes more than 62,000 of materials annually. W+R invested $15 million of capital cost to adapt a transfer station and outfit it with machinery capable of accepting and sorting mixed C+D for recycling onsite,” explains Wienkes. Per a public-private partnership, W+R owns the 28,000 square foot building and sorting infrastructure, and the facility is staffed and operated by a private third party. This facility has enabled W+R to take a sizable chunk out of the incoming waste stream and divert it from landfill.
While W+R does not operate a collection service, it does serve as the primary destination for materials in the County. W+R operates the County’s only MSW landfill, and the only C+D recycling facility in the state. W+R also collects tires (850 tons/yr.), shingles (14,600 tons/yr.), and metal (170 tons/yr.) for recycling by private third parties and operations the County’s Clean Sweep program that accepts household hazardous waste (HHW) and electronics for recycling (14,000 visits/yr.). Recycling programs include:
• Shingle recycling
• Tire recycling
• Clean wood, brush, and logs processing
• Electronic equipment recycling
• Appliance recycling
• Mercury and fluorescent bulb recycling
• Bicycle exchange program
• Clean Sweep product exchange program
• Food scrap drop off program
• Annual grant program to support organics diversion
W+R also maintains a directory of recycling locations for materials the Department does not currently accept.
Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com
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