By Derrick L. Coley and Judy Sheahan
March 19, 2001

Committee workshops were held at the MWMA Annual Meeting. Below are some highlights of each of the four sessions. For complete coverage of the workshops, please see our website at usmayors.org/mwma.

Recycling

During the Recycling committee workshop on household hazardous waste collection, participants heard about successful drop off and curbside collection programs. Dennis Fleming, Chief of Solid Waste for Charles County (MD), discussed his county's efforts to provide a drop off site at the landfill 12 times a year for residents, and Julie Klien, Program Manager for the City of Denver presented their efforts in curbside household hazardous waste collection.

Operations

The Operations committee workshops tackled such diverse issues as OSHA ergonomics regulations and compliance and landfill methane outreach. Susan Eppes, Director of Safety and Compliance Recycling for Waste Management — Recycle America, presented an interactive "train the trainer" workshop, providing detailed steps needed to analyze and implement ergonomically adaptive features to foster reduction and control measures to lower or eliminate musculosketal disorders. Workshop attendees also got an overview of the Landfill Methane Outreach Program and an update on how methane gas could be used in different applications, including electricity and vehicle fuel.

Environmental

The Environmental committee dealt with a variety of issues including renewable energy, alternative fuels, and brownfields redevelopment. Bob Dixon, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy highlighted the Brownfields to Brightfields program in Chicago and San Diego. The Brightfields program is an initiative to place energy sources, in these cases solar panels, on brownfield sites. Tom Rinehart with EPA's Office of Special Projects also discussed the latest developments in brownfield issues. Improving air quality through fleet management was also discussed by Drew Sones, Assistant Director for the Department of Public Works for the City of Los Angeles who spoke of buying natural gas vehicles and Jim Blubaugh with EPA who discussed installing pollution-reducing technology on diesel engines.

Waste-to-Energy

The Waste-to-Energy committee was briefed by Katie Cullen, Vice President of the Integrated Waste Services Association, on the status of utility restructuring, mercury bans, green-e marketing, and Small MACT standards. Members of the committee discussed a proposed draft resolution that would support biomass production tax credits for waste-to-energy and landfill gas and determined ways that the tax credits could be utilized by local governments.