December 15, 2008

The Municipal Waste Management Association invited members of the German government to provide international insight on solid waste and recycling and Harvey Gershman, President of Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc, was able to talk about the initial stages of the earth movement and some best practices. The panel discussed what technologies and practices have proven successful while others have failed . German government officials were also able to explain what goals were set for their environmental agencies and what steps were needed in order to complete them. MWMA Members would be able to work together and share ideas with the German government officials to improve solid waste management practices.

During the first Earth Day in 1970, legislation was not in place to help industries become greener and the practice of "burning everything" was commonplace. It was not until later that the ideals of "reduce, reuse, recycle" would become the baseline for future solid waste management. Harvey Gershman reported that today, only 33% of waste is recycled, while 60 percent goes to landfills. A majority of waste is not used properly and could be recycled. The waste stream in America has changed significantly over past decades with food and plastics waste increasing greatly while glass is declining. Each person produces about 1,364 lbs of trash a year. Trash contains a high amount of BTU's which could be used for a valuable source of new energy. A promotion of zero-waste could be used to market this new energy and reduce collection costs.

Mr. Gershman shared several qualities that successful waste management practices had in common. First, being able to set goals, devise a plan, and to use all connections possible. Then, think about what costs will be incurred and put benchmarks in place. Finally, the value of the recycled goods should be assessed; followed by procurement and implementation.

The waste management challenges in the U.S. are very similar to Germany's, but Germany no longer contains large landfills. Germany had tried to export its waste to other countries, but found this was ineffective. The country developed solutions aiming to increase separate collections and recycling of the waste. More importantly, educating the public on waste was key. Research then showed that most household waste contained about 60 percent biomass, which is very valuable in terms of energy generation.

The German Environmental Agency invested money and effort into researching on better of methods of incineration on different wastes. The research led to improved incineration geometry and improved gas treatment. The standards of waste treatment were also regulated. The goal was to avoid emissions of land fill waste into the air and water. Dioxin emissions decreased from 290 grams to 0.2 grams in the period between 1990 to 2004. Municipal Solid Waste must be pre-treated by either thermal or mechanical-biological methods. Currently in Germany, over 71 Municipal Solid Waste Incineration plants are operating.

The Green Party in Germany has proposed new environmental friendly solutions to waste. Germany plans to eliminate landfilling completely by the year 2020. The enhancement of new technologies in the solid waste management area will be able to create 250,000 new jobs. The new changes will vastly reduce the amount of CO2 emissions in the air. The incineration of organic waste has great impact on reducing the amount of green house gases the U.S. produces. The Municipal Waste Management Association, along with its German counterparts, and private partners look forward to discussing new methods and technology on solid waste management and recycling in the future.