Upcoming Events
MWMA Fall Summit
September 11 - 13, 2012
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Lexington
Lexington, KY

Recent Events
2011 MWMA Fall Summit
Visit our 2011 Fall Summit Virtual Conference Center to learn more.

---

Workers Compensation: Dealing with Rising Costs and Reduced Efficiency (Webinar)
June 2nd, 2011
While automation of trash collection and legislative remedies are two significant ways to address the incidents of workers compensation claims among solid waste workers – a challenge every city faces – there are more cost-effective solutions that city officials can implement, often without the need for legislation at the state level.  That was the message to participants in this webinar on workers compensation,which featured a presentation by Mike Carroll, Solid Waste Director for the City of Orlando, who outlined the key elements of Orlando’s workers compensation process:

• Workers are only paid 2/3 of their regular salary under workers compensation—they must use accrued leave (such as sick days or vacation time) to make up the remainder of their regular salary. And workers out on workers compensation don’t work holidays and thus don’t earn the usual double-time holiday pay.
  

• The City of Orlando contracts directly with an occupational medical provider, who reviews every workers compensation claim submitted. If a claim is refused or any reason, the worker is entitled to a second opinion – but they must choose from a pre-approved list of board-certified doctors in the field most closely related to the nature of their injury.  This contrasts sharply with the experiences of other cities.  For example, California state law allows a worker to choose his or her own doctor to review their claim, according to Chris Gonaver, Director of Environmental Services for the City of San Diego. 

• Workers who are deemed fit for restricted duty are assigned to paperwork jobs in City Hall, often in the records or human resources departments.  These clerical positions often involve mundane and repetitive work, and most workers see them as boring assignments.  According to Carroll, pulling one of these assignments is in itself an incentive for many workers to work to reduce their time on workers compensation.

• Orlando’s solid waste workers are restricted to a maximum of six months on workers compensation in any twelve-month window.  This includes any leave the worker may take under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as well as any restricted-duty assignments in which a worker might be place.    In contrast, California workers may claim up to 2,080 hours – up to a full year of benefits – at full pay.

• All workers on workers compensation have their cases reviewed every two weeks by the city’s occupational medical provider.  (In many cities cases are reviewed more infrequently – for example, in Austin it’s every 45 days).  If a worker is deemed fit to return to full duty, in the absence of a second opinion to support continued benefits, he or she must either do so or face being fired.

Carroll feels that these policies have been very successful in reducing workers compensation claims – out of a field staff of 80 he’s had only two “repeaters” over his ten years in the position.

Download Mike's PowerPoint Presentation

---

Recycling Construction and Demolition Debris - Can it Pay Dividends in Your Community? (Webinar)
April 7, 2011
This 'closed door' session was part of MWMA's "Urban Summit Series," where public sector solid waste and recyling officials from cities across the country and your public sector colleagues from other cities can talk openly about the challenges they face in executing successful programs - in this case, construction demolition and debris recycling initiatives.

The session featured a presentation on San Diego's successful construction and demolition recycling program, which you can view here.  San Diego officials also answered questions from other cities, on topics such as what’s included in construction and demolition debris, in terms of materials; the level of employees resources required to maintain a C&D recycling program; the history and content of the San Diego city ordinance that established the program; and typical diversion rates.

Download the PowerPoint on San Diego's construction and demolition debris recycling program.

---

Extended Producer Responsibility (Webinar)
November 9, 2010
This international movement to improve product design by changing how recycling and waste disposal are financed is gaining momentum in North America. And it is being largely led by local governments currently burdened with managing products designed for disposal. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR; also known as Product Stewardship) is a government strategy to place the responsibility for end of life product management on the producer and consumers of a product and not the general taxpayer or local government.

Bill Sheehan of the Product Policy Institute joined Sego Jackson from the Northwest Product Stewardship Council (NWPSC) and and Heidi Sanborn from the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) for a lively discussion on what product stewardship means for governments, actions they can take, and how local governments are getting organized through state Product Stewardship Councils.

• Product Policy Institute Presentation
• NWPSC Presentation
• CPSC Presentation
  

---

2010 Fall Summit
September 28 - October 1, 2010
Baltimore, MD
More than 70 public and private sector environmental professionals met September 28 through October 1 in Baltimore (MD) for the 2010 Municipal Waste Management Association (MWMA) Fall Summit. Led by MWMA President Robin Davidov, Executive Director of the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, attendees shared best practices with each other, issue experts, and private sector partners, and explored such timely issues as new technologies, recycling, green vehicles, and benchmarking.
Read the full article as it appeared in US Mayor.
Fall Summit Meeting Agenda
Fall Summit Sessions:

• Driving Operational Excellence through Benchmarking
• Best Practices in Recycling: The Philadelphia Story
  
• Update on New Waste To  Energy Technologies - Harvey Gershman
• Regulatory Update - Boiler Standards
• Legislative Update - Climate Change
• Green Vehicle Technologies - Dr. Joseph Kovach