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Solid Ulaste. management
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Initialing a national Effort
tolmpraue
Solid Ulaste management
A comprehensive chronicle (SW-14)
of activities and accomplishments in solid waste management
within
the U.S. Department of Health, Education., and Welfare
under authority of the
Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
1971
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An environmental protection publication
in the solid waste management series (SW-14).
Single copies of this publication are available from solid
waste management publications distribution, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 5555 Ridge Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45213-
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FOREWORD
At a time of growing national commitment to restore the quality of
our environment, it is important to understand the efforts already made
in a categorical program that has been concerned with what has been
called the "third pollution."
With the passage of the Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965 and the
establishment of implementing regulations, the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare (DHEW) assumed major responsibilities for improving
solid waste management practices in the United States.1'2
This document is a report on accomplishments made by the Department
in executing its responsibilities under the Act. It is designed to be
used in conjunction with the seven companion summary publications that
present the complete story of staff, grant, and contract projects,
describing objectives, details of funding, and progress on each proj-
ect. 3"9
Throughout the report the federal solid wastes program is referred
to by the final appelation it held during the latter part of its five
years under DHEW,--The Bureau of Solid Waste Management.
RICHARD D. VAUGHAN
Deputy Assistant Administrator
for Solid Waste Management
!The Solid Waste Disposal Act; Title II of Public Law 89-2/2, 89th
Cong. S.306, October 20, 1965- Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1966. 5 p.
i i
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^Grants for solid waste disposal projects. Federal Register,
3l(6l):5l80-5l83, Mar. 30, 1966. Reprinted as amended, June 8, 1967.
Reprinted, Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968. 4 p.
3Bayless, T. B., comp. Publications of the Federal solid waste
management program, 1951 1970. Public Health Service Publication No.
2112. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office. (in press.)
4Toftner, R. 0., D. D. Swavely, W. T. Dehn, and B. L. Sweeney,
comps. State solid waste planning grants, agencies, and progress--1970;
report of activities through June 30, 1970. Public Health Service
Publication No. 2031. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1971. 26 p.
5Lefke, L. W., A. G. Keene, R. A. Chapman, and H. Johnson, comps.
Summaries of solid wastes research and training grants 1970. Public
Health Service Publication No. 1596. Washington, U.S. Government Print-
ing Office. (in press.)
6Breidenbach, A. W., comp. Summaries of solid waste intramural research
and development projects. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971.
24 p.
7Sponagle, C. E. Summaries; solid wastes demonstration grant
projects--1969. Public Health Service Publication No. 1821. Washington,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. 175 p.
8Sponagle, C. E. Solid wastes demonstration grant abstracts; grants
awarded January l--June 30, 1969- Cincinnati , U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, 1969. 47 p.
9Clemons, C. A. and R. J. Black. Summaries of solid wastes program
contracts, July 1, 1965~-June 30, 1968. Public Health Service Publica-
tion No. 1897. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969- 46 p.
Supplement (insert), July 1, 1968--June 30, 1970. 38 p.
I v
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CONTENTS
I. INITIATING A NATIONAL EFFORT TO IMPROVE 1
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
II. HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ACT IV IT IES 9
IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
The Postwar Years 10
The Solid Waste Disposal Act 11
Organization under PHEW 17
Office of Solid Wastes 17
Solid Wastes Program 17
Bureau of Solid Waste Management 18
Division of Demonstration Operations 19
Division of Research and Development 21
Division of Technical Operations 21
Office of Program Development 22
Office of Information 22
Fiscal Data 23
Conclus ion 28
III. ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970 29
Demonstration Operations 29
Objectives of the Demonstration Grant Projects 30
Achievements 31
Storage and Collection 32
Sani tary Landfi11 33
Incinerators and Incineration 3^
Composting 35
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Rail Haul 37
Management of Specific Wastes 38
Planning for Area-Wide Solid Waste Management 39
Equipment Evaluation 40
Miscellaneous Projects 41
Conclusion 4]
Research Operations 41
Research and Development Matrix 42
Source Reduction 43 -_
Storage 45
Collection and Transport 45
Volume Reduction Processing 47 *
Land and Sea Disposal 48
Reclamation 49
Research Services 50
Modes of Funding 51
Intramural Research 51
Contract Research 52
Research Grants 54
Conclusion 55
Technical Operations 56
Technical Assistance and Investigation Branch 57
Basic Data Branch 58
Systems Management Branch 58
Operational Analysis Branch 58
Planning Grants 62
Urbanization 65
Public Attitudes 67
Accomplishments 69
Development of National Survey of Community Solid
Waste Practices 71
Survey Forms 72
Survey Coverage 73
Implementation 74
Recording and Processing Survey Data 75
vi
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Date Presentation 76
Conclusion 76
Technical Assistance j6
Engineering 81
Planning 8^
Management Sciences 85
Computer Technology 87
Statistics 88
Data Development 90
Legislation 90
Training Operations 92
Courses Offered 93
Training Grants 36
Information Activities 101
Publishing Operations Office 101
Public Information Office 103
Solid Waste Information Retrieval System 103
IV. FUTURE NEEDS AND PROGRAMS 106
VI I
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INITIATING A NATIONAL EFFORT
TO IMPROVE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
The population of the United States is expected to double within
the lifetimes of most of today's citizens, doubling also the demands
upon the unchanging air, water, and land resources of our country.
The 1960's ended with a population of over 200 million, a preeminent
industrial complex, a vast agricultural industry, and an individual
affluence without precedent. The environmental effects of these social
phenomena are evident already in air and water pollution, urban and
rural blight.
The solid wastes being generated from individuals and communities
now exceed 3&0 million tons a year, only half of which is collected.
Agricultural solid wastes are estimated at 2 billion tons a year;
mineral wastes add another billion tons each year. As the Nation enters
the 1970's it is generating over 3-3 billion tons of solid wastes
annually. Within the next 30 years this outpouring of waste material
could more than double, as the population is predicted to double.
Space for waste is not limitless. Neither, with such an expansion
of population as is anticipated, can we continue to afford the economic
loss from profligate discard of used material, much less the increased
health hazard to our people from polluted air, water, and land. A
substantial portion of our Gross National Product is being junked each
year. Billions of tons of material produced by human labor are being
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expended as waste without reclamation. The economic loss is compounded
by the cost of solid waste management: the collection, transportation,
and processing or storage of waste is already the third greatest
financial burden of local governments in the Nation, exceeded only by
education and road construction and maintenance. This waste is matter,
indestructible, and must remain in our environment as gases, liquids,
or solids, whether used or unused. Such is the nature of the problem.
In past years, wastes were disposed of in the seemingly limitless
reservoirs of air, water, and land. Only recently have we realized
that these natural reservoirs are not limitless. Our littered streets,
bulging dumps, polluted rivers and dying lakes, the choking air of our
cities, and the offal on our beaches testify to decades of neglect and
the limits of the environment, which can no longer accommodate the vast
and increasing waste products of our society.
This report addresses the specific problem of solid waste management.
As defined in the Solid Waste Disposal Act, solid waste is garbage,
refuse, and other discarded solid materials, including those resulting
from industrial, commercial and agricultural operations, and from
community activities. Solid waste does not include solids in domestic
sewage or other water resource pollutants such as silt, irrigation
return flows, or industrial waste water.
The problem of solid waste disposal is interrelated with those of
air and water pollution, each having its own environmental peculiarities.
The differences stem principally from the fact that water and air are
natural transport systems, whether polluted or unpolluted, whereas
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solid wastes require transportation devised by man. Water and air also
have a natural cleansing or assimilative capacity; until this capacity
is exceeded, they are generally capable of self-renewal. In contrast
to this, solid wastes discharged upon the land do not disperse and
mingle with the soil except to a very minor degree.
These factors present special problems to solid waste management.
Disposition of solids from their original site to processing, storage,
or discharge to the environment is primarily mechanical. Processing
and discharge are limited by the related problems of air and water
pollution. Incineration, grinding, the use of water for either
transportation of solids or as solid waste sinks, impinge upon the
concurrent attempts to purify the air and water environments. On the
other hand, the elimination of impurities from air or water at the source
of pollution commonly results in the generation of solid wastes by
separation, drying, or compaction, which in turn require disposal.
Measures to reduce pollution, or dispose of waste material, must therefore
be taken with full consideration of the effect upon the overall
environment--air, water, and land.
The intent of the Congress, as reflected in the Solid Waste Disposal
Act of 1965, typifies one of the peculiarities of solid waste disposal:
it cannot be regulated on a national level in the sense that air and
water pollution can be regulated. There is no medium such as air or
water that naturally carries solid waste across political boundaries,
affecting the people at large. Most solid wastes are deposited on land
locally and their disposition remains a local problem. Nevertheless,
the people at large are affected in other ways.
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The problem is concentrated in densely populated urban areas.
Entire neighborhoods are being degenerated, blighting the inner cities
and reducing local revenues to such an extent that State or Federal
assistance is required to prevent financial chaos.
Refuse storage, collection, transportation, and processing directly
and intimately affect some 80 percent of the population.
The costs of waste handling, already severe, are rising.
The loss of billions of tons of material to unreclaimed waste each
year indirectly affects the entire citizenry.
The aesthetic and real values of areas with increasing population
are being degraded by inadequately effected solid waste disposal.
It was apparent to the Congress that the primary contribution to be
made by the Federal Government was assistance to State and local
governments and interstate agencies, guided by the overall interests of
the Nation. This assistance is rendered in the form of research and
development at the national level, and technical and financial assistance
for the planning, development, and conduct of solid waste disposal
programs at the State, local, and interstate levels.
The results of the Solid Waste Disposal Act have been: (l) the
dissemination of technical, operational, and management information;
(2) the encouragement and support of research and development on
equipment and systems; (3) the demonstration of improved solid waste
handling systems; (4) and the development of funding, planning procedures,
and personnel training programs.
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These activities have been nonregulatory in nature but are intended
to have deep and lasting economic and societal effects.
The major economic significance of the solid waste management
problemits overall cost to the Nationhas been indicated above. There
are other economic considerations.
The potential for recovery of materials from solid wastes has been
exploited to only a small degree, notably in steel and copper. These
mineral fractions represent a minor part of the 200 million tons of
solid waste discarded and unreclaimed each year. Such wastes are a major
national resource, and their return to economical reuse must somehow
become a common practice as solid waste increases in the years of the
near future.
There is also an unrealized potential in the reduction of costs
through increased efficiency in the handling, transportation, processing,
and disposal of solid wastes. Mechanization, with its reduced demands
for human labor, improvement of personnel skills through manpower
development programs, and reduced accident rates in the waste disposal
processes, are under study and experimentation with the objective of
long-term cost reduction.
The cost of the Nation in human physiological disorders that result
from inadequate disposal of solid waste cannot be determined. It is
known that conditions favoring insect and rodent disease vectors are
enhanced by undisposed waste, and that polluted air and water contribute
to human disease. Considering the large number of workers in the areas
of waste collection, processing, and disposal, and considering the
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hazardous nature of their occupations, their lack of training, and
exposure of extremes of weather, the high cost in deaths, debilitation,
and lost man-hours through illness is predictable.
Since one of the current problems of solid waste disposal relates
to modes of transportation to processing sites or repository, an adequate
solution might also be applicable to the commercial hauling of bulk
materials (such as coal and ore).
The problems of solid waste management compel the development of
techniques and systems vastly more sophisticated than those now in common
use. The ultimate effect of such developments is no more predictable
than the side benefits from the space program. What can be clearly
assessed, however, is that the urban, industrial, and agricultural
activities of the population have resulted thus far in a degradation of
the overall environment of the United States, and that this trend must
be reversed.
Only in the last decade have serious thought and effort been
addressed nationally to the problems of waste disposal. During that
time, the basic philosophy has changed. From an initial concentration
on pollution control, and the attempt to regulate the flow of waste from
its sources, a realization has grown that our real concern is for the
overall quality of the environment. Broad objectives of clean air, pure
water, and a higher quality of life in our country are those receiving
popular support and dominating public policy through elected
representatives and officials. The American people are not satisfied
to live with polluted air or water, or amidst their own solid wastes.
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And at best, the production of waste material can only be reduced by
regulation at the Federal or State level.
We have found that the immediate practical solution to solid
waste problems is in physical procedures: collection methods,
transportation, processing, recycling into the economy, or sequestering
unusable material into permanent storage. We have recognized that such
efforts must be efficient, economical, not injurious to either public
health or the ecology, and aesthetically satisfactory to our citizens.
The Federal Government has devoted its resources to such functions
as can assist in realizing these objectives. The Federal efforts,
solutions, and continuing problems of the past five years are set forth
in the following pages.
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11
HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Interest in solid waste disposal as a national problem was evident
as early as the 19th century. One of the initial efforts was to document
the existing system of garbage disposal in 1887- During that year, the
American Public Health Association established a committee to study the
problem and received its report on the destruction of organic refuse
by fire the following year.10 In 189**, a similar committee undertook a
study of the collection and disposal of waste matter and completed a
report in 1897-
Almost a generation later, a classic and comprehensive study was
made by Randolph Hering and Samuel A. Greeley. Published in 1921,
Collect-Ion and Disposal of Micn-ioi-pal Refuse is of continued interest
today.11 Hering and Greeley estimated the waste production of 33 cities,
varying in population between 25,000 and A,250,000, with a total
population of 17,750,000 included in the study. The investigators
computed an annual average waste production per capita of 183 pounds
10Ki1vington, S. S. Garbage crematories and the destruction of
organic matter by fire. Minneapolis, Harrison and Smith, 1888. [8 p.]
nHering, R., and S. A. Greeley. Collection and disposal of munic-
ipal refuse. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1921. 653 p.
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garbage and 770 pounds ashes and rubbish, or 953 pounds total. This
amounted to 2.58 pounds of refuse per capita per day. The work of Hering
and Greeley also established three basic requirements for the satisfactory
disposal of solid wastes: (1) absence of danger to public health, (2)
minimum distance to the public, (3) minimum expense that will affect a
sanitary disposal of all refuse materials.
The Postwar Years
Although these early examples addressed the problems of solid waste
disposal from a national, rather than local, viewpoint, they were neither
initiated nor sponsored by the Federal Government. It was not until
World War II and its aftermath that the problem of waste disposal became
sufficiently severe at the local level to incite action by the executive,
and subsequently the legislative, branches of the Federal Government.
The enormously increased productivity of the war years was carried into
the postwar period and continued. The population exploded into initial
and secondary "baby booms." The affluence of society accelerated the
generation of solid waste. Twenty years after the end of World War II,
air and water pollution, junked vehicles and appliances, used but
persistent detergents and pesticides, had become problems of the people
at large and, as a result, problems of their Nation's government.
Prior to 1966, there were solid-waste-related activities within the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; these were conducted in a
small operation within the Environmental Engineering and Food Protection
10
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Division of the Public Health Service. A staff of from two to five
people conducted studies in the areas of sanitary landfill and composting
operations. The staff also provided limited technical assistance,
guidance, and consultation on solid waste handling and disposal to State
and local government agencies, professional organizations, and individuals,
In addition, under the Public Health Service Act, research grants at
an annual level of about $200 thousand were awarded for the development
of a data base in the area of solid waste management. The Public Health
Service, in cooperation with the American Public Works Association
(APWA), sponsored a national conference on solid wastes research in
December 1963.12 Assistance was provided the APWA in preparing two
manuals, Munia-ipal Refuse Disposal and Refuse Collect-ion Practices, both
of which still serve as major guidelines for the design and evaluation of
refuse collection and disposal systems by public works and health
officials.13.14 The Public Health Service, during the early 1960's, also
participated with the APWA and State and local agencies in training
programs on solid waste disposal.
The Solid Waste Disposal Act
In a 1965 message to Congress, the President stated:
Continuing technological progress and improvement
^Proceedings; National Conference on Solid Waste Research, Chicago,
Dec. 1963, University of Chicago Center for Continuing Education. Spe-
cial Report No. 29- American Public Works Association, 1964. 228 p.
^American Public Works Association. Municipal refuse disposal.
3d ed. Chicago, Public Administration Service, 1970. 538 p.
lifAmerican Public Works Association. Refuse collection practice.
3d ed. Chicago, Public Administration Service, 1966. 525 p.
11
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in methods of manufacture, packaging, and marketing
of consumer products has resulted in an ever-mounting
increase of discarded material. We need to seek
better solutions to the disposal of these wastes.
In the same message, the President recommended legislation to:
Assist the States in developing comprehensive
programs for some form of solid waste disposal.
Provide for research and demonstration projects
leading to more effective methods for disposing of
or salvaging solid wastes.15
The Congress recognized the increased threat to the health and
well-being of its constitutents by the mounting quantities of solid
wastes generated by all segments of the society. Too, it recognized the
rapidly increasing costs of collection and disposal, the depletion of
some of the country's natural resources, and the very real threat to the
quality of man's environment. After consideration of the Nation's solid
waste management problem, the congress formalized its findings as follows,
The Congress finds
(1) that the continuing technological progress and
improvement in methods of manufacture, packaging,
and marketing of consumer products has resulted in
an ever-mounting increase, and in a change in the
characteristics, of the mass of material discarded
by the purchaser of such products;
(2) that the economic and population growth of our
Nation, and the improvements in the standard of
living enjoyed by our population, have required
increased industrial production to meet our needs,
and have made necessary the demolition of old
buildings, the construction of new buildings, and
^Special message to the congress on conservation and restoration
of natural beauty, February 8, 1965. J_n_ Public papers of the presidents
of the United States; Lyndon B. Johnson, v. 1. Washington, U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1966. p. 163-
12
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the provision of highways and other avenues of
transportation, which, together with related industrial,
commercial, and agricultural operations, have resulted
in a rising tide of scrap, discarded, and waste
materials;
(3) that the continuing concentration of our
population in expanding metropolitan and other urban
areas has presented these communities with serious
financial, management, intergovernmental, and
technical problems in the disposal of solid wastes
resulting from the industrial, commercial, domestic,
and other activities carried on in such areas;
(4) that inefficient and improper methods of
disposal of solid wastes result in scenic blights,
create serious hazards to the public health,
including pollution of air and water resources,
accident hazards, and increase in rodent and insect
vectors of disease, have an adverse effect on land
values, create public nuisances, otherwise interfere
with community life and development;
(5) that the failure or inability to salvage and
reuse such materials economically results in the
unnecessary waste and depletion of our natural
resources; and
(6) that while the collection and disposal of solid
wastes should continue to be primarily the function
of State, regional, and local agencies, the problems
of waste disposal as set forth above have become a
matter national in scope and in concern and
necessitate Federal action through financial and
technical assistance and leadership in the development,
demonstration, and application of new and improved
methods and processes to reduce the amount of waste
and unsalvageable materials and to provide for proper
and economical solid-waste disposal practices.
To cope with these threats Congress passed the Solid Waste Disposal Act
of 1965 (Public Law 89-272) and amended it in 1968 (PL 90-574)
principally to extend the operations of the original Act.16
d Waste Disposal Act Amendment of 1968; report of the Committee
on Public Works, U.S. Senate, to accompany S.3201, 90th Cong., 2d sess.,
Report No. \kkl. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968. 33 p.
13
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The two basic purposes for the legislation were stated in the 1965
Act:
(l) To initiate and accelerate a national research
and development program for new and improved methods
of proper and economic solid-waste disposal, including
studies directed towards the conservation of natural
resources by reducing the amount of wastes and
unsalvageable materials and by recovery and utilization
of potential resources in solid wastes; and
(2) To provide technical and financial assistance to
State and local governments and interstate agencies in
the planning, development, and conduct of solid-waste
disposal programs.17
There were four distinct products from the passage of this Act, each
furthering the expressed purposes of the Congress:
(l) The problem of solid waste disposal was identified as a
national as well as a local issue.
(2) The implication was made that the overall quality of
the environment, rather than the more mechanical and restrictive problems
of pollution control and waste disposal, was the central objective.
(3) Increased funds were authorized for what had hitherto been
an essentially low-budget operation.
(4) The problem, as identified, and the resources allocated,
required an organization capable of fulfilling these research
responsibi1i ties.
The Solid Waste Disposal Act divided responsibility between two
Federal Departments: the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
17Solid Waste Disposal Act; Title II of Public Law 89-272, 89th
Cong. S.306 October 20, 1965- Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1966. 5 p.
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was given the principal responsibility, and the Department of the Interior
was made responsible for problems associated with handling and disposing
of those solid wastes resulting from processing fossil fuels and minerals.
The Congress authorized the appropriation of $79-95 million
for the five fiscal years from 1966 to 1970, to be provided the Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) for carrying out the commitment
in solid waste management at the national level (Figure 1). For the
same period, the Department of Interior was separately authorized $4*4-55
million to address the problems of waste disposal resulting from mining
and the processing of minerals and fossil fuels.
The Act authorized specific action in six areas of need: (1) grant
support for local and State projects to demonstrate new and improved
waste disposal technology; (2) grant support for the development of
area-wide solid waste management systems to end fragmentation of
responsibilities among small communities; (3) grant support for the
development of State and interstate plans for meeting solid waste handling
needs; (4) research, both direct and grant supported, to establish the
basis for new approaches to solid waste handling; (5) training programs,
both direct and grant supported, to alleviate critical shortages of
trained personnel; (6) cooperation with public and private agencies,
institutions, and organizations, and with any industries involved, in
the preparation and the conduct of activities.18
18Solid Waste Disposal Act.
15
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CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS AUTHORIZED TO DHEW
UNDER THE SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT
20-
18-
§ 16-
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70
67 68 69
FISCAL YEARS
Figure 1. Under the Solid Waste Disposal Act the congress
authorized appropriations at almost $80 million to the Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare to begin the national effort toward
economical and effective management of the 3-3 billion tons generated
annually in the United States.
16
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Organization under PHEW
Office of Solid Wastes. Passage of the Act on October 20, 1965,
resulted in the establishment of an Office of Solid Wastes within the
Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
The authorities and responsibilities conferred on the Secretary of
Health, Education, and Welfare were delegated to the Surgeon General of
the Public Health Service and, in turn, by him to the Chief, Office of
Solid Wastes. Four million dollars of supplemental funds were appropriated
by the Congress and apportioned to the Office of Solid Wastes on
January 25, 1966, by which time marked progress had already been made in
staff recruitment and administrative development for the new program.
The Office of Solid Wastes made the pioneer efforts under the new
Act during its first year. Operations and the allocation of resources were
generally divided between two broad functions: the apportionment of
grants; and the conduct of direct operations by the Federal Government.
Grant support was utilized to implement action in five of the six
categories of need assessed by the Congress (see above), while direct action
was also taken in the areas of research, training, and technical
assistance. This basic framework for operations has been continued with
only minor variation through the several reorganizations of DHEW's solid
wastes program effected since the establishment of the Office of Solid
Wastes on December 3, 1965-
Solid Wastes Program. In January 1967, the Office of Solid Wastes
was designated as the Solid Wastes Program within the new National Center
for Urban and Industrial Health with headquarters at Cincinnati, Ohio.
17
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For the next two years, the Program continued to effect the responsibilities
of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for solid waste
management, under the direction and guidance of the Surgeon General. As
planned in the original Solid Waste Disposal Act, these two years were
a period of increasing activity, supported by public funds that reached
the present level of nearly $20 million a year.
Bureau of Solid Waste Management. In July 1968, the Public Health
Service was reorganized into three major health units: Consumer Protection
and Environmental Health Service, Health Services and Mental Health
Administration, and National Institutes of Health. The first of these was
formed largely from the Food and Drug Administration and the former Bureau
of Disease Prevention and Environmental Control of the Health Services and
Mental Health Administration.
On December 20, 1968, announcement was made in the Federal Register,
(vol. 33, No. 2**7) of the organization of the Consumer Protection and
Environmental Health Service, which consisted of the Food and Drug
Administration, the National Air Pollution Control Administration, and
the Environmental Control Administration. The latter was composed largely
of two previously existing Centers: the National Center for
Radiological Health and the National Center for Urban and Industrial
Health. The former Solid Wastes Program, within the latter organization,
was reorganized in January 1969 into the Bureau of Solid Waste
Management, one of five bureaus in the Environmental Control Administration.
In December 1969, the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health
Service was restructured and renamed the Environmental Health Service, with
18
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the Food and Drug Administration being placed elsewhere organizationally
in the Department. The reorganization, however, did not affect this
Bureau.
The Bureau of Solid Waste Management: plans, conducts, and promotes
research, investigations, experiments, demonstrations, surveys, and
studies relating to the conduct of solid waste programs and development
and application of new and improved methods of solid waste storage,
collection, and disposal; develops new and improved methods of reducing
the amount of solid waste requiring ultimate disposal, through reuse,
recycling, and source reduction and provides technical and financial
assistance to appropriate agencies and organizations in planning,
developing, and conducting a solid waste management program; collects
and provides, through publications and special reports, the results and
professional analyses of research and technically oriented activities
being conducted in the field of solid waste management; encourages
cooperative activities in solid waste management by the States and
local governments and encourages interstate, intrastate, and regional
solid waste planning.19
The functions of the three divisions and two offices of the Bureau
(Figure 2) are described below.
Division of Demonstration Operations (DDO). The Division of
Demonstration Operations plans, develops, conducts, and evaluates through
19[Lovell, L. B.] Solid wastes. ^Environmental health planning.
Public Health Service Publication No. 2120. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1971. p. 31-36.
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direct activities, grants, contracts, and demonstrations to encourage the
application of new and improved methods, techniques, and equipment for
solid waste management.
Division of Research and Development (DR&D). The Division of
Research and Development plans, conducts, and evaluates research concerning
solid waste systems and systems requirements, and new and improved means
of managing as well as reducing the generation of solid waste. This
division plans, develops, and conducts municipal-scale development
projects to encourage the application of new and improved methods,
techniques, and equipment for solid waste management. DR&D manages
grants-in-aid programs to combat solid waste problems facing the Nation
and develops operations research techniques to the management of solid
waste systems and plans, conducts, and evaluates research in the
socioeconomic science and its relationship to solid wastes management
systems.
Division of Technical Operations (DTO). The Division of Technical
Operations encourages and supports the planning, development, and conduct
of solid waste management programs through consultation, information,
and technical assistance to public and private agencies, organizations,
and individuals. DTO provides assistance in the economic, mathematical,
and computer sciences related to the interpretation of solid waste
technology. This division also manages a program of planning grants to
State and interstate agencies and fosters implementation. Another
function of DTO is to collect and evaluate basic statistical data on a
21
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national basis relating to solid wastes, investigate specific problems
through special studies, and to develop criteria for standards, model
ordinances, and regulations.
Office of Program Development. The Office of Program Development
assists and advises the Bureau Director in the development, coordination,
and assessment of program planning operations; coordinates and develops
Bureau planning strategy in accordance with EGA policy; identifies the
need for new programs, and develops proposals and mechanisms for their
creation; provides liaison with the Office of Program Development, EGA,
and provides leadership within the Bureau in the discharging of program
planning requirements within ECA guidelines; evaluates program output
with respect to plans and funds, administers and implements PPB
operations, and incorporates planning data into the budget process;
provides Bureau focal point for legislative planning; and conducts
internal program analyses and special studies.
Office of Information. The Bureau's Office of Information plans,
directs, and coordinates the dissemination of solid waste information to
the general and professional public, and staff. Provides necessary
services to develop, design, review, edit, print, and distribute
Bureau publications resulting from contract, grant, and in-house
activities; directs and operates solid waste management information
retrieval from the world-wide literature. Develops displays, exhibits,
motion picture films, and other visual materials and reviews and
coordinates public presentations by staff members of the Bureau.
22
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As of the end of December 1968, there were 180 full-time employees
assigned to the Bureau (Table 1).
Certain administrative, programming, training, and fiscal functions
are handled centrally by the Environmental Control Administration. The
administrative details of research and training grants, for example, are
performed in the Office of the EGA Commissioner while the technical
overview is the responsibility of the Bureau.
Fiscal Data
The general levels of funding to the Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare for solid waste disposal grew from $A.3 million (FY 1966) to
$15.2 million (FY 1970) (Table 2). Utilization of funds during the five
years has remained relatively constant, proportionally allocated to
support of the five broad categories of effort: demonstrations, research,
planning, training, and direct operations (Table 3)-
The initial year of operations under the Solid Waste Disposal Act
(FY 1966) saw a greater emphasis on demonstration and research grants
than in subsequent years, with less emphasis on direct operations.
Beginning with FY 1967» the employment of funds in the general categories
has remained about the same; the major resources supporting demonstration
grants and direct operations, with research and planning grants receiving
the next greatest emphasis, and training grants remaining at a constant
level of 3 percent of the overall budget.
These relatively steady apportionments of the overall funds available
do not reflect the expansion actually obtained by the increased
23
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authorizations and appropriations during the 1966-1970 period. Training
grants, as an example, remained a fixed 3 percent of the budget throughout
the 5~year period; increased authorizations over the same period provided
an increase in training grants from $150,000 in FY 1966 to $^90,000 for
FY 1970. A similar increase in actual, as opposed to proportional, funds
occurred in the other major categories of fiscal effort (Table 3)
With the exception of the initial year of operations under the'Solid
Waste Disposal Act, the proportion of funds budgeted and allocated to
direct operations has also remained constant, with an increase of available
funds throughout the 5-year period permitting expansion of operations within
the overall budget. Separate from the system of grants, the direct
operations of what has become the Bureau of Solid Waste Management have
involved research, training, and demonstration development as well as
technical assistance to State and local governments, associations, and
individuals, as a part of its responsibilities. These direct operations
had a modest beginning in the remaining months of Fiscal Year 1966, under
the newly passed Act that also provided the initial authorization of funds.
Commencing with Fiscal Year 1967, research became a multimillion-dollar
effort; the in-house and directly-supported training program has grown
to almost $500 thousand annually; technical assistance to both
governmental and private interests has passed the million-dollar mark;
and the development of demonstration installations and techniques has
increased to over $750 thousand of expenditure annually.
27
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Cone1 us ion
The history of Federal Government activities in solid waste
management under DHEW has been one of innovation, adaptation, and adherence
to the expressed and implied intent of Congress. Operations have been in
response to both the needs set forth in the Solid Waste Disposal Act and
the requirements expressed by State and local governments within the
spirit of that Act. The level of $20 million a year anticipated in the
original Act was reached in FY 19&9 and slightly reduced for the FY 1970
period. Most of the States, 5 interstate agencies, Guam, Puerto Rico,
and the District of Columbia, are participating in the national problem
of solid waste disposal, through planning grants for State-wide surveys
and the development of comprehensive solid waste management systems on
a regional basis. The solid waste management functions of the national
government are a product of almost five years' experience and uninterrupted
effort in a serious and continuing problem area.
28
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Ill
ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970
Demonstration Operations
One of the three major responsibilities that were assigned to the
Office of Solid Wastes in pursuance of the objectives set forth in the
Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 was the responsibility for encouragement
and support of projects to demonstrate new and improved methods of solid
waste collection, handling, and disposal. The Act authorized demonstration
grants to provide up to two-thirds of the funds necessary for local and
State projects to demonstrate new and improved waste-disposal technology.
It also authorized the same level of Federal support for the development
of area-wide solid waste management systems designed to coordinate waste
disposal activities across city and county boundaries, a means of ending
the fragmentation of disposal responsibility within an area and increasing
the efficiency of disposal operations.
In order to administer the provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal
Act of 1965 in the area of demonstration grants, a Demonstration Grants
Activities section was created within the Solid Wastes Program. Principal
functions of Demonstration Grants Activities included: providing advice
about the development of new applications when required; conducting
technical review of new applications for demonstration grants to determine
the feasibility and value of the proposed project; monitoring funded
29
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grant projects during the lifetime of the grant to evaluate progress
and ensure that the appropriate Federal requirements are met by the
grantee; reporting research results as such results develop during the
lifetime of each grant. The section, now the Division of Demonstration
Operations, was responsible for the development of necessary administrative
and fiscal procedures for demonstration grant management and supervision.
Objectives of the Demonstration Grant Projects. Two fundamental
types of projects exist under the supervision of the Division of
Demonstration Operations: projects specifically for demonstration and
study-and-investigat ion projects, which, while they may involve the
construction of small laboratory models for testing, do not primarily
involve the acquisition or erection of a large physical plant. Each of
the projects has a particular purpose, and is intended to reach a defined
objective that is one part of the total solid-waste picture.
By June 30, 19&9» 102 Federal grants had been made to demonstration
projects that fall into the categories defined by the Solid Waste Disposal
Act of 1965.20>21 These categories are:
1. Demonstrations that relate to the development or application of
new and improved solid waste disposal methods, devices, or techniques.
2. Study-and-investigat ion projects concerned with municipal or
regional solid waste disposal practices, where such projects may provide
solutions for regional or national solid waste disposal problems.
. Summaries.
21Sponagle, Abstracts.
30
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3- Study-and-investigat ion projects concerned with municipal or
regional solid waste disposal practices, where such projects may lead to
a demonstration of improved methods or techniques.
k. Study-and-invest!gation projects concerned with a particular
type of waste, or with a particular solid waste disposal problem,
practice, or technique, where the findings of such a study or investigation
may be of significant national interest and value.
For a complete description of the funding, objectives, procedures,
and progress to date of each demonstration grant awarded by the Bureau
of Solid Waste Management, see the current edition of Public Health
Service Publication No. 1821, Solid Wastes Demonstration Grant Projects
1969, and supplements thereto.22»23
Achievements. Section 20k of the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
authorized Federal grants-in-aid intended to encourage demonstrations of
new ideas and technologies in the solid waste disposal field where such
innovations, while offering the possibility of solutions to particular
solid waste problems, might involve considerable risk of failure--risks
of such magnitude as to make local government or the authorities of a
small community hesitant to assume the financial burden of testing the
new idea rather than relying on proven and therefore more predictable,
albeit less effective or desirable, methods of dealing with solid
wastes. Such demonstration projects serve to facilitate the practical
^Sponagle. Summaries.
23Sponagle, Abstracts.
31
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application and general acceptance of techniques based on newly-discovered
knowledge; they provide for the initial, inevitable costs of adjusting
a laboratory project to the demands of full-scale operation in an
unpredictable real world; and they provide the only effective way of
demonstrating that a new technique or theory can become a practical
addition to the armamentarium of the civil engineer. In addition,
demonstration projects stimulate public interest and contribute to
public acceptance of such new techniques as the sanitary landfill; no
amount of explanatory publicity can so effectively demonstrate the
difference between a well-engineered sanitary landfill and a conventional
open-burning dump, for instance, as can the simple inspection of a
sanitary-landfill demonstration project from a passing automobile on a
Sunday drive.
Projects have been funded demonstrating new technology in the
following broad categories: storage and collection, sanitary landfill
and reclamation, incinerators and incineration, composting, rail haul,
management of specific wastes, planning for area-wide solid waste
management, and equipment evaluation and development.
Storage and Collection. Statistical analysis indicates the
approximately 75 to 80 percent of the total cost of solid waste
management as presently practiced throughout the United States is related
to storage and collection; consequently the application of new and more
economical techniques in this area promises to provide the greatest
immediate financial benefits.
32
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Sanitary Landfill. One of the questions asked on the form for the
1968 National Survey of Community Solid Waste Practices, for respondents
who indicated that they used landfill methods to dispose of solid
wastes, was the question "Is this a sanitary landfill?" Fourteen percent
of the sites surveyed were judged by the interviewers to be sanitary
landfills to the extent that a positive response could be made to this
question. The survey form had several other questions, however, which
allowed a check to be made on this response, and when those sites where
water pollution problems or open-air burning of wastes were reported had
been eliminated from the list of sanitary landfills, along with those
sites where each day's accumulated refuse and garbage was not compacted
and covered with earth by the end of the day, it was found that less than
half those respondents who considered their operations to be sanitary
landfills actually met the rather modest engineering requirements
considered, by those familiar with solid waste management, to be minimum
standards for sanitary landfills.24*25
Clearly, there is a major problem in public education to be dealt
with here. If even the officials who are in charge of the Nation's solid
waste disposal facilities on the local level cannot reliably judge whether
^Munich, A. J., A. J. Klee, and P. W. Britton. Preliminary data
analysis; 1968 national survey of community solid waste practices. Public
Health Service Publication No. 1867. Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1968. 483 p.
25Black, R. J., A. J. Muhich, A. J. Klee, H. L. Hickman, Jr., and
R. D. Vaughan. The national solid wastes survey; an interim report.
[Cincinnati], U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, [1968].
53 P.
33
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or not the sanitary landfill standards, as they are generally understood,
can be met by the refuse- and garbage-disposal operations directly under
their jurisdiction, then the public at large can hardly be held culpable
for failing to realize that the disposal of solid wastes can be
accomplished without causing blight, ugliness, and vermin to proliferate.
And until it is generally known that there are solutions to the problems
of pollution and waste that have been raised by the growth of our urban
centers and the increase of our population, there can hardly be the sort
of general support that it will take to put these solutions into
practice.
It is one of the real strengths of the demonstration grant projects
program that the projects contribute to the solution of this
public-education problem. Demonstration grants for projects in the area
of land reclamation and sanitary landfill projects, in addition to the
specific information they provide as to the feasibility and the operating
parameters of particular types of landfills, also serve to acquaint the
general public in the most direct and effective fashion with the results
that can be obtained by the application of new techniques in the area of
sanitary landfi11.
Incinerators and Incineration. Of the approximately 300 large
community incinerator installations in the United States, 70 percent
are without adequate air-pollution control devices. It is common
practice to release incinerator residues and quench waters into the
environment without treatment and without control of the long-term
effects. The 8 percent of solid waste now being dealt with by incineration
-------
may have to be increased, as time passes, to deal adequately with the
growth of urban areas where land for landfill is not available on an
economically competitive basis. All of these considerations point up
the importance of research and development in the area of incinerator
technology.
Under the demonstration grants activity of the solid wastes
program, a number of grants have been made to advance the technology of
incinerators and at least one interim report has been published by the
Bureau.26
Composting. It is difficult to keep all matters of public concern
in the public eye continuously, and at the present time air pollution
and water are receiving much publicity. Nor are these problems anything
less than urgent. But other threats to the biosphere also exist, and must
be given due consideration by the public and by solid waste management
authorities. The exhaustion of the earth's natural deposits of coal,
oil, metal ores, and other substances vitally necessary to the maintenance
of, not only civilization as we know it, but also the viability of life
on earth, has been a source of concern for many years. In the long run,
it is as important to prevent the loss of irreplaceable soi1-ferti1izing
elements such as phosphorous from the land as it is to prevent the
poisoning of our atmosphere and our oceans. One of the ways in which
the cycle of elements can be maintained is through the use of
^Kaiser, E. R. Evaluation of the Melt-Zit high-temperature
incinerator; operation test report, August 1968. Cincinnati, U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1969. [116 p.]
35
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compost!ng--the treatment of solid wastes so that they can be used as
soil conditioners and be returned to the earth. Thus, the minerals that
are removed by growing plants would be replaced in the soil rather than
irretrievably lost in the oceanic abyss.
Only two demonstration grant projects have been related to composting
as a method of solid waste disposal, but this is not in any way a
minimization of the importance or the potential of this approach to
managing solid waste. In coordination with research and development being
conducted in connection with the problem of water pollution, composting
may provide solutions to problems that cannot be dealt with in any other
way.
The first of these projects, demonstrating the reliability, suitability,
economy, feasibility, and nuisance-free operation of a high-rate mechanical
composting system when used to dispose of the refuse from a medium-sized
community, has been brought to completion. This demonstration was
carried out by the Gainesville Municipal Waste Conversion Authority of
Gainesville, Florida. It consisted of the construction of a compost plant
designed to process 20 tons of refuse per hour, using municipal refuse
from the city of Gainesville and Alachua County in combination with either
raw or digested sewage sludge. Records were kept of the amounts of
refuse and sludge processed, of the amounts of compost produced, and of
the noncontestable material salvaged from the municipal refuse input. A
complete cost analysis was made, covering operating and maintenance costs
of the equipment. The efficiency of the equipment was evaluated,
operating characteristics and maintenance requirements were determined,
36
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and the health of compost-plant employees was monitored to determine if
occupational hazards existed. Analyses were made of the biological,
chemical, physical, and bacteriological nature of the compost in the raw,
partially-digested, and finished states, and the final product was
compared with commercially-available organic fertilizers. The project
was completed by the end of 1968, and the results were published by
the Bureau of Solid Waste Management.27
Rail Haul. Two study-and-investigation project grants have been
made to advance the evaluation of the costs and the benefits to be
expected of the use of railroads to transport solid wastes from
densely populated urban areas to areas where sanitary landfill is not
uneconomic due to high land cost. The groundwork has been firmly
established, unpromising alternatives have been identified and discarded,
and the study is concentrating on three major assumptions: that transfer
stations will collect and process the waste in the generating communities,
that rail facilities will be usedperhaps with containerization of
some types of wastes to move the processed waste to remote sites, and
that final disposal of the wastes will be accomplished by use of sanitary
landfill techniques at carefully prepared sites.
Studies of the transportation of refuse by rail show that rail
transport should be feasible, under current conditions, over distances
of from 10 to ^tOO miles. Design of special railroad cars to facilitate
Gainesville Municipal Waste Conversion Authority, Inc. Gainesville
compost plant; an interim report. Cincinnati, U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, 1969. [3^5 p.]
37
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the transfer of refuse and to speed loading and discharge is also being
pursued.28
Management of Specific Wastes. Projects concerned with specialized
techniques for dealing with particular types of waste are aimed at a
small volume of the total waste load that must be dealt with. Failure
to deal adequately with this small volume of material can lead to
problems of appalling magnitude.
Automobiles, for instance, are becoming a more and more difficult
problem to solid waste management authorities across the Nation.29 Recent
developments in the steel industry have reduced the demand for scrap
metal from automobiles. Disposal of abandoned vehicles has generally been
undertaken by scrap-metal dealers as a profit-making enterprise, but
this means of automobile disposal is becoming less available to
municipalities as scrap metal margins of profit decline. A
study-and-investigat ion project has been undertaken on this subject,
the results of which include a set of guidelines for industry
standards.
A demonstration project is being conducted to show the advantages
of up-to-date techniques in the disposal of manure from dairy farms. In
^American Public Works Association Research Foundation. Rail
transport of solid wastes; a feasibility study; interim report: phase
one. Cincinnati, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
1969. 168 p.
29Management Technology Inc. Automobile scrapping processes and needs
for Maryland; a final report on a solid waste demonstration. Public Health
Service Publication No. 2027. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1970. 6k p.
38
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this project anaerobic lagoons are used for storage of manure during
seasons when use of the manure as fertilizer is not possible, with
disposal of the manure being accomplished by means of scheduled
application of farmland.
Problems in disposing of waste wood and other bulky burnable objects
may be subject to solution by use of techniques currently being
demonstrated by another Bureau grant.
Planning for Area-Wide Solid Waste Management. Many study-and-
investigation grants were made under the provisions of the Solid Waste
Disposal Act for the support of management surveys and development of
consolidated area-, region-, and county-wide solid waste management plans.
It is hoped that these plans will soon lead to implementation of the
proposals for consolidated collection and disposal programs as indicated
by the results of the surveys. These studies point out the disadvantages
of fragmented refuse disposal systems and, thereby, illustrate the
advantages, economics, and overall system improvements that may be gained
through regional solid waste planning and management. The Bureau has
already published too many of these reports to cite them individually;
the Bureau's completed publications listing is available.30 Mention of
a few of these reports, however, will suggest the range of studies and
invest!gat ions.
The Quad City (New Jersey) regional project effectively demonstrated
the establishment of a regional solid waste districtone of the first
Bayless, Publications of the Federal solid waste management program.
39
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in the nation.31 The Des Moines (Iowa) project provided substantial
information on both the detailed organization of an intergovernmental
solid waste collection and disposal agency and the detailed plan and
analysis of the collection routes and system.32 The New Orleans
(Louisiana) project, very comprehensive in nature and covering one of the
larger metropolitan areas, provided one of the first attempts at developing
a master plan for solid waste collection and disposal.33
The Genesee County (Michigan) project demonstrated the manner in which
communities and industry can work together to develop alternatives for
improving present solid waste practices. These studies and others like
them are expected to serve as blueprints for other regions throughout
the country.34
Equipment Evaluation. As new equipment is developed for the
management of solid wastes and comes on the market or is reduced to
standard engineering practice, unbiased evaluations of the performance
and utility of such equipment becomes increasingly valuable. Grants by
^Quad-City solid wastes project; an interim report, June 1, 1966
to May 31, 1967. Cincinnati, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare, 1968. [181 p.]
32Henningson, Durham & Richardson, Inc. Collection and disposal of
solid waste for the Des Moines metropolitan area; a systems engineering
approach to the overall problem of solid waste management; an interim
report. Cincinnati, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,,
1968. [324 p.]
33Albert Switzer & Associates, Inc., and Greenleaf/Telesca. Master
plan for solid waste collection and disposal; tri-parish metropolitan
area of New Orleans; final report on a solid waste management demonstration.
Public Health Service Publication No. 1932. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1969- [359 p.]
3ltSolid waste disposal study; technical report; Genesee County,
Michigan, June 1968. Cincinnati, U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, 1969- [251 p.]
ko
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the Bureau of Solid Waste Management are made in this area in order to
expedite the development of equipment, the incorporation of improvements,
the correction of faults, and the acceptance of valuable innovations by
solid waste management personnel at all levels of local and State
government.
Miscellaneous Projects. Several miscellaneous projects, which show
promise of developing solutions for national solid waste disposal
problems, or of contributing to the solution of such problems, have been
approved for support by the Division of Demonstration Operations. These
projects are of a varied nature, and include training programs,
demonstrations aimed at segments of the general public other than those
directly concerned with solid waste management, and projects directed to
the consideration of special situations existing in particular
ci rcumstances.
Conclus ion. Demonstration project grants have an important part in
the Bureau of Solid Waste Management program, allowing an early start to
be made on the implementation of the measures to deal with the nationwide
solid waste management problem. Final results from the many projects
currently in progress will be of immeasurable value in identifying fertile
avenues of research, mobilizing popular support, enlisting the aid of the
scientific and technical community, and pointing up the basic problems
that must be solved.
ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970 (cont'd.)
Research Operations
The earliest research undertaken in solid waste management was
41
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carried out through research grants beginning in FY I960.35 The intramural
research program was not initiated until FY 196?.36 Early efforts were
applied to the planning for the present experimental compost plant facility
now located in Johnson City, Tennessee, and the development of the
laboratory operations presently located in two sites in Cincinnati. These
laboratories were established to perform necessary service functions to
support other efforts of the Bureau, as well as to begin the conduct of
intramural research and development for better solid waste management.
The tasks associated with analyzing samples from field investigations
conducted as part of studies sponsored by various elements of the
Bureau represent a significant, but ofttimes unheralded, effort.
Early in fiscal year 1968, the first modest resources were applied
to several intramural research and development projects. The efforts
were carried out by the laboratory facilities located at 5555 Ridge Avenue
and at 5335 Center Hill Avenue, Cincinnati. The Office of Program
Development coordinates the efforts made in extramural projects with the
efforts undertaken by the staff of the Division of Research and
Development within these facilities. In several instances, cooperative
work with other governmental agencies has been undertaken.
Research and Development Matrix. The research and development efforts
for better solid waste management are organized to attack the problem in
35Lefke, L. W., A. G. Keene, R. A. Chapman, and H. Johnson, comps.
Summaries of solid waste research and training grants--1970. Public Health
Service Publication No. 1596. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office.
(In press.)
36Breidenbach, A. W., comp. Summaries of solid waste intramural
research and development projects. Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1971. 2k p.
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segments that would form the basis for a research and development
matrix (Figure 3). A discussion of the segments of this matrix will provide
an introduction to the national research and development program carried
out under the authority of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
Five sources of solid waste have been identified. These are:
residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and institutional.
Solid waste, regardless of the point of origin, must be managed through
a series of unit operations. Research and development is needed in every
phase of such operations. The following paragraphs discuss the problem
from the point of view of the individual segments of the matrix.
Source Reduction. All solid waste has a distinct point of origin;
that is, the location where the substances are discarded. It follows
that this point of origin, if accurately defined, may provide a key for
the modification of some of our present solid waste patterns. Source
reduction encourages the concept of decreasing the amounts of solids
entering the waste stream at the very point of generation. We are all
aware of items which become wastes soon after we acquire them. They
appear as boxes, cases, wrappers, bags, bottles, cans, envelopes, and a
myriad of other items. Thoughtful consideration, education, and
decisions are required if we are to stabilize or reduce the amount of
solid wastes generated per capita. The effort, ambition, and Ingenuity
that are applied to the design of today's attractive packaging is a
credit to those who compete for our various consumer markets. The
packaging industry should be encouraged to apply the same level of
ingenuity and innovation to the design of packaging that might be readily
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Volume
Reduction
Processing
Recycle,
Salvage and
Utilization
Land and Sea
Disposal
Conventional pathways
Proposed pathways
7 Research Services
Figure 3- The research and development program matrix developed
by the Bureau of Solid Waste Management.
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reclaimed or, at least, that might lessen the solid waste management
problem. Some groups have begun action in this direction.
Storage. Every producer of solid wastes must provide a method of
holding or storing the wasted material while awaiting collection. Even
the housewife with a garbage grinder is no exception, in that the grinder
eliminates only the problem of garbage storage. The storage system
employed has a direct effect upon the environment of the area in which
the waste is produced. Poor storage of solid wastes provides sustenance
for rodents and insects, produces unpleasant odors, provides fuel for
fires in and around the storage areas, and prevents the efficient and
economic collection of the solid waste materials.37 All aspects of solid
waste management may have their effect upon the environment, but
storage and collection are more nearly related to the solid waste
problem as viewed by the average citizen. This problem literally is at
the citizen's very door. Inadequacies affect him directly, quickly,
and with great impact.
It should be noted that solid waste storageexcept for larger
containershas not changed appreciably since man found it necessary to
remove his waste from his immediate environment. The static storage
system has perpetuated a collection system, for the most part, of
similar anti qui ty.
Collection and Transport. The collection and transport of solid
wastes is a connecting link between storage and processing or disposal
37[Black, R. J.] Safe and sanitary home refuse storage. Public
Health Service Publication No. 183. Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office. Revised 1962, 1968. 6 p.
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and is affected by each of these. Poor storage and illogical disposal
practices adversely affect the collection process. It is estimated that
70 to 80 percent of the cost of solid waste management is accounted for
by the collection and transport aspect. This portion of the service has
been considered disposal of waste by the citizen. He has demanded
rapid removal of solid waste from his propertyconsidering the job
complete when the truck has disappeared around the corner. It seems
natural, then, that funds for collection services have been more obtainable
than those for ultimate disposal sites. Funds, however, have been used
mostly for more trucks, bigger trucks, and increases in manpower. New
techniques for collection, in combination with improved storage, are
necessary to management of the burgeoning solid waste problem. Land
that is suitable for disposal of solid wastes is rapidly being preempted
for other purposes. The people in suburbia naturally resent the
placement of disposal sites nearby. The noise and impact of concentrated
vehicular traffic poses additional problems in area and route selection.
For these reasons and many more, the transportation of solid wastes is
becoming increasingly expensive and time-consuming. A comprehensive
evaluation of collection and transport, evaluated as a system, can often
produce economics of operation and design so that service can be
improved without attendant degradation of the environment. Investigations
conducted within the recent National Survey of Community Solid Waste
Practices show that for lA percent of the communities reporting, both
separate and combined collection are used sporadically and unpredictably,
an inconsistency not in keeping with economic operation. The survey also
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indicates that over 12 percent of the citizens are not served by any
collection system. 38 Improvements in collection and transport systems
technology should provide these areas of economic and environmental
conflict with improved service systems.39
Volume Reduction Processing. With urban land utilization, land
disposal areas for solid waste are becoming scarce. Sanitary landfill,
the technique of the engineered disposal of solid wastes on land, reduces
the volume of wastes as a function of normal operation. Any process or
system that will further reduce the volume of wastes is extremely desirable.
Such a process could add years of additional service to existing landfill
sites, reducing the need for future sites. Volume reduction processing
systems, such as incineration and composting, whether or not byproducts
of the operation are fully exploited, may be the method preferred for
decreasing refuse volume. Such systems at the present time may produce
incidental pollution, thus diminishing their value to the community.
All too often air pollution, water pollution, and vector problems
accompany attempts at volume reduction. Although present systems may
be employed without degrading the environment, often the cost of
protectionTprecludes their use. Studies of existing methods and
38Black, R. J., A. J. Muhich, A. J. Klee, H. L. Hickman, Jr., and
R. D. Vaughan. The national solid wastes survey; an interim report.
[Cincinnati], U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, [1968].
53 p- Reprinted in Proceedings; Third Annual Meeting, Institute for
Solid Wastes, Miami Beach, Oct. 2k, 1968. Chicago, American Public
Works Association, p. 2k-k3.
39Ralph Stone and Company, Inc., Engineers. A study of solid waste
collection systems comparing one-man with multi-man crews; final report.
Public Health Service Publication No. 1892. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1969. 175 p.
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innovations in similar techniques are sought to provide economic and
adaptable concepts in volume reduction methods to preserve land areas.
The 1968 National Survey of Community Solid Waste Practices indicated
that less than 9 percent of the citizens are served by incinerators,
the major method of volume reduction prior to disposal.^ Presently, more
than 80 percent of these incinerators are degrading the environment with
air pollution, water pollution, visual blight, and vector proliferation.
Land and Sea Disposal. Approximately 6 percent of the nation's
land disposal sites are acceptable by present environmental standards.
The open, sometimes burning, dump is the rule rather than the exception.
New and better methods of solid waste disposal upon the land must be
developed to preserve environmental integrity. Presently acceptable
methods must be evaluated and adopted by even the smaller governmental
entities. Cost-benefit methods must be applied to the utilization of .
land as well as water and air. But as more stringent regulations for
land disposal techniques are applied, there is a tendency for government
and industry alike to seek other areas of ultimate disposal. Communities
and industries in coastal areas view the sea as a natural sink for solid
wastes. Because of the immediate and continuing pressure to use the sea,
we need factual information on the extent of sea disposal priorities. We
must consider, from a base of scientific data, the consequences of sea
disposal upon the marine environment and the ecology of the sea.4
t+0Black, et al. The national solid wastes survey; an interim report.
'tlSmith, D. D., and R. P. Brown. Ocean disposal of barge-delivered
liquid and solid wastes from U.S. coastal cities. Public Health Service
Publication No. 2113- Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office. (In
press.)
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Reclamation. Several factors justify projects in the reclamation
category: (l) the volumes and weights of solid waste requiring ultimate
disposal can be decreased by removing portions of the wastes for salvage,
reuse, or recycling; (2) some value does remain in the materials
heretofore discarded; (3) the basic raw materials used in the production
of goods are lost to us permanently when solid wastes are disposed of by
the methods presently applied.1*2 Pertinent salvaging techniques are
generally too costly to provide the incentive of profit or a marginal
cost return. Conservation of our national resources, including land
areas for disposal and reclamation of despoiled land, may be realized
through the development of adequate mechanical sorting and classifying
devices. New methods of utilization made possible by innovations in
recycling and reclaiming materials present in the waste stream may prove
advantageous. Regardless of the location of the resource, recycling, or
reclaiming operation, materials removed at any time will ultimately
reduce the final disposal quantity. This factor alone may prove timely
as our national production rate of wastes is increasing. Naturally, one
of the first sources of recyclable material is any process that produces
a large quantity of waste products which are of uniform, consistent
quality. As separation and classification techniques become more
sophisticated and efficient, materials intimately mixed with other wastes
It2Drobny, N. L., H. E. Hull, and R. F. Testin. Recovery and
utilization of municipal solid waste; a summary of available cost and
performance characteristics of unit processes and systems. Public Health
Service Publication No. 1908. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1971 118 p.
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may assume new economic importance.43 The recycling and reuse of our
natural resources is a basic tenet, held by all, yet unfortunately
followed by few. Present attempts at these reuse methods have been
1imited--usually to indiscriminate hand-picking by unfortunate
individuals who are looking for more satisfactory employment. Once
solid waste is received at a disposal site, only a small portion is
recycled.
Research Services. Since most solid waste is unusable or unwanted,
there has been a normal reluctance to identify quantities and sources
or to develop methods of characterizing, in any meaningful way, the
discards themselves. Before success can be obtained in improving solid
waste management, many basic questions must be answered. A few of these
are: (l) What are the normal characteristics of solid waste? (2) How
can representative samples of such a heterogeneous mixture be made? (3)
What analytic methods should be used to define these characteristics?
(4) Do pesticides and other toxic materials persist in solid wastes?
(5) What are the potential health hazards in a given solid waste
management system?
The answers to these and other questions are of concern to all
engaged in research and development. Studies in this segment of research
and development are designed to provide the basic tools which are
necessary to solve the problems represented in the other segments of the
matrix.
^Engdahl, R. B. Solid waste processing; a state-of-the-art report
on unit operations and processes. Public Health Service Publication No.
1856. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. 12 p.
50
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Modes of Funding. There are four methods of acccmplishing research
and development that can be employed under the Solid Waste Disposal Act
of 1965. These can be listed as: intramural efforts, contract efforts,
research grant contributions, and demonstration grant activities.44 The
usefulness of these modes of fundingwithin a mission-oriented,
matrix-directed program--depends upon the urgency, scale, complexity, and
resource requirements of the tasks to be accomplished. The following
paragraphs will discuss the first three of these modes of funding as they
have been applied to the solid waste management problem by this Bureau.
The fourth mode of funding, demonstration grant activities, has been
discussed previously.
Intramural Research. Topics for intramural exploration have a
high degree of flexibility, because control of project direction is
continuously close to the work itself. Success with intramural work
is dependent upon the ability to acquire competent investigators and
managers, as well as suitable space and equipment within a reasonable
time period. Intramural research must be supported by top-flight
personnel recruitment and procurement services.
An example of an intramural research project is the project to
design and test a high-temperature incinerator for small-sized
population units. The project is directly associated with the needs for
a complete description of research projects, including funding,
description of objectives, and progress to date, see the current editions
of Public Health Service Publication Nos. 1596, 1821, 1897, and Breidenbach,
A. W. Summaries of solid waste intramural research and development projects,
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971. 2k p.
51
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new concepts in refuse incineration that will present alternatives to
conventional incineration techniques. In the current phase of the
project, the design of the incinerator is complete, and procurement of
necessary parts is in progress.45 It is anticipated that the incinerator
will soon be assembled and testing will begin. The potential benefit
of this project, if successful, will be an adequate means of incineration
for communities in the 10,000-to-50,000 population bracket. .
Another intramural research project has as its objective definition
of the microbiological quality of the total effluent and immediate
improvement of current- and to-be-developed incineration processes.
Microbiological data are being taken to form baseline information for
future use in assessing the efficacy of new and modified incineration
processes.46 Five incinerators have now been tested, and we anticipate
that in another year we will have the information from a sufficient
number of sites to establish the needed baseline information.
Contract Research. Contract research minimizes the space and
personnel considerations inherent in intramural research and permits
mutual agreement as to what fs to be accomplished before the contract is
negotiated. Such research requires cTose supervision by a knowledgeable
45Brefdenbach. Summaries of sal id waste intramural research and
development projects. See also, Kirrg, D. A. Development of a high-tempera-
ture, low capacity refuse incinerator; a Division of Research and Development
open-file progress report (WP-03-68-08). [Cincinnati], U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, 1970. 29 p. [Restricted distribution.]
46Peterson, M. L. Pathogens associated with solid waste processing;
a progress report. [Cincinnati], U..S. Environmental Protection Agency,
1971. 26 p.
52
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and, in most cases, senior scientist or engineer. The contract is a legal
document, and those engaged in contract research are looked upon as
ex-offi cio members of the intramural research team. The variety and
extent of our research contracts are promising signs of a coming
expansion of solid waste technology and fruitful business-government
research relationship.47
An example of contract research is the subscale experiment program
for the Combustion Power Unit-^00.48 These experiments are a planned
follow-up to feasibility studies completed during fiscal year 1969.
This study showed that it may be economically and technically feasible
to use the waste heat from the controlled fluid-bed incineration of
municipal solid waste to generate electricity with the aid of a gas
turbine. The subscale experiments will permit evaluation of the new
principles in combustion as well as particulate reduction necessary to
the successful implementation of this concept. By the end of fiscal
year 1970 we expect to have the information necessary to permit a
decision on the construction and testing of a prototype power-generating
incinerator. Success with this particular project would result in
substantial reduction of costs in volume reduction by incineration.
A second example of the Bureau's contract research is a study of
the relationship between packaging materials and waste disposal. This
^demons, C. A., and R. J. Black. Summaries of solid wastes program
contracts, July 1, 1965"June 30, 1968. Public Health Service Publication
No. 1897. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. k6 p.
Supplement (insert), July 1, 1968--June 30, 1970. 38 p.
^Combustion Power Company, Inc. Combustion power unit-^00; CPU-^00;
a technical abstract. Rockville, Md., U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, 19&9. 15 p.
53
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study determined the present proportions for types and volumes of
packaging materials and indicated trends to the year 1976, with
anticipated effects on solid waste management problems.^9 Means of making
changes in packaging to mitigate such problems were suggested. The
work accomplished is the necessary first step toward the objective of
redirecting these materials away from the waste stream and thus reducing
the amount of waste remaining to be managed. With the basic data
available from this effort, it should be possible to initiate definitve
studies and move further toward the objective of minimizing solid waste
management problems associated with packaging materials.
Research Grants. This mode of research provides the investigator
with a high degree of freedom. The grantor has but modest control over
the direction of the research, once the funds are awarded. Reports and
publications are related to the freedom of the investigator and are not
counted on in the same manner as in a time-sequenced research and
development program. Research grants can provide excellent opportunities
for exploratory research of high-risk concepts where some initial
free-lance investigative efforts minimally related to a time-sequenced
matrix are desirable. Thus, the Bureau of Solid Waste Management supports
a wide variety of research projects through the grant mechanism.50
lf9Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. The role of packaging in solid
waste management, 1966 to 1976. Public Health Service Publication No.
1855. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. 205 P-
50Lefke. Summaries of solid wastes research and training grants.
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An example of research grant effort is that being conducted at the
University of Pennsylvania on pipe transport of domestic solid wastes.
Objectives are to investigate the application of known technology of
solid transport in pipes for the collection and removal of solid waste
as well as economic comparison with truck collection systems. This
basic research on a new and radically different collection system has
potential application not only in future model cities but may wel'l be
feasible to replace existing collection systems in established cities,
if the cost of this installation is amortized over a 50-year period.
Another example of effort being conducted through the research
grant mechanism is the grant entitled "Pyrolysis of Solid Municipal
Wastes." This work, being performed by the City of San Diego, has as
its objective the investigation of the feasibility of pyrolysis as an
economic method of decreasing the volume of solid wastes, the production
of useful by-products, and the determination of the optimum conditions
for operation of the process.
Characterization studies have been made to form the basis of
pilot-plant charge materials. The municipal solid wastes are being
pyrolyzed at various temperatures, and the resulting solid, liquid,
and gas products collected and analyzed. Typical samples have been
pyrolyzed at temperatures of 90 F, 1,200 F, 1,500 F, and 1,700 F, using a
sample density of 5-55 lb per cu ft. The products to date consist of
gases, liquid pyroligneous acids, and somewhat contaminated charcoal.
Conclusion. It is hoped that through research and development
we may devise new and improved technology which will help in the
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management of a variety of solid wastes generated within the United
States. These techniques, however, cannot effectively mitigate the
present problem of poor solid waste management unless four additional
elements can be assured: (l) increased awarness and concern of the
average citizen for his individual, community, and corporate solid
waste management problems51; (2) cooperative regional and community
action--through professional leadership--to manage solid wastes
effectively; (3) the efforts in college and university of faculty and
students, who possess the ingenuity and innovative expertise, to bring
about new solutions; and (4) the well-known capability of the industries
that form the backbone of American technological progress. Thus, if the
citizen, the community, the university, and industry will help to create
and to test a new technology, the millions of tons of wastes generated
each year can perhaps be channeled, used, recycled, managed, and
transformed into millions of tons of American assets.
ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970 (cont'd.)
Technical Operations
The formalized activities of the technical services branch of the
Office of Solid Wastes began with the establishment of Cincinnati-based
operations in August 1966. At that time, the technical services
activity was structured into two, and later into four, sections: planning,
51National Association of Counties Research Foundation. Citizen
support for solid waste management. Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1970. 20 p. [Also published as chap. 8 of Public Health Service
Publication No. 2084. In press.]
56
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engineering investigations, chemistry and biology, and operations research.
When the Office of Solid Wastes was reorganized as the Solid Wastes Program
in 1967, a number of other changes took place. The chemistry and
biology section was transferred to the research and development activity;
the operations research and planning sections were formed into the
systems and operations planning activity; and the engineering investigations
section became the technical services activity.
The most recent reorganization, in early 19&9, established the
Division of Technical Operations by merging the systems and operations
planning and technical services activities with the responsibility
for technical assistance, planning grants direction, planning assistance,
basic data development, establishment of standards and criteria and
the application of the management and mathematical sciences to solid
waste management.
The Division of Technical Operations was organizationally
structured into four branches to carry out its portion of the Bureau
of Solid Waste Management's program: Technical Assistance and
Investigations Branch, Operational Analysis Branch, Basic Data Branch,
and Systems Management Branch. Technical advisors serve as the primary
technical resource to the Division on particularly complex solid waste
problems and assist in the review and coordination of Division projects.
Technical Assistance and Investigation Branch. Provides
consultation, advice and assistance to public and private organizations,
agencies, and individuals in the development and conduct of solid waste
management systems.
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Basic Data Branch. Develops, collects, and interprets basic
data related to solid waste management systems through the conduct of
technical studies and evaluations, cooperationj^it^r related agencies, and
the operation of the national data network.
Systems Management Branch. Manages a program of planning grants
to State and interstate agencies and assists in the planning and
implementation of solid waste management systems through consultation;
promulgation of recommended guidelines, model legislation, ordinances
and codes; application of the management sciences.
Operational Analysis Branch. Applies mathematical and social
sciences to the solution of solid waste problems and provides assistance
to public and private organizations, agencies, and individuals through
the use of the physical, mathematical, and social sciences.
The Division of Technical Operations (DTO) is charged with the
primary responsibility of providing the assistance authorized in the Act,
and shares the responsibility for investigations, surveys, and other
studies with other divisions of the Bureau. The Division is concerned
with the collection, interpretation, dissemination, and application of
knowledge to solve present problems to achieve improvements of
operations presently considered to be unacceptable, or to further
upgrade acceptable operations.
Fulfillment of DTO goals requires that the Division's activities
be intimately involved with the ongoing technical operations of existing
and proposed solid waste management systems. The activities to bring
about the needed improvements with the present state of solid waste
58
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technology require field efforts to attempt immediate solutions, the
study and analysis of existing technology, the collection and
dissemination of basic data as needed for problem solving, and the
investigation of methodologies from related fields for possible application
to solid waste management.
Program activities were analyzed and evaluated in late FY 19&9,
and the Division formulated a long-range program plan which was
incorporated into the Bureau's program management plan. The plan was
implemented in FY 1970.
The program is designed to help meet the long- and short-range
objectives as exemplified by a problem matrix (Table k), and to support
assistance activities, the management of the planning grant programs,
the collection, analysis, and application of the needed basic data for
problem solving, the interpretation and application of new emerging
technology, and the training of DTO personnel to develop the skills
needed to meet the responsibilities of the Division.
Each DTO project may be easily referenced to the matrix to
illustrate the interrelationships of each project to the existing problems
in solid waste management and to meet the Bureau goals. The matrix
displayed was published in the 5-year project plan Issue Study on Solid
Wastes, by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, in
August 1969.
The provision of assistance by the Bureau as authorized by the
Act is through both direct and indirect response to requestors
(Figure 4). The direct assistance response is provided by contact
59
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BUREAU OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE CYCLE
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Figure k. The provision of assistance by the Bureau of Solid
Waste Management, as authorized by the Solid Waste Disposal Act, is
by both direct and indirect response to requestors.
61
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between Bureau personnel and the receptors. The indirect assistance is
provided by the collection and dissemination of information and data
related to the various aspects of solid waste management.
There are, of course, significant interrelationships between the
two forms of assistance. Knowledge gained from intramural projects is
applied directly to the field by the direct assistance staff and
indirectly by Bureau publications. The experiences gained by the
direct technical assistance activities provides a feedback to the
intramural projects for data and information needs and to the research
and development programs for new technology needs. Consequently, the
direct and indirect assistance activities are closely interrelated to
create a dynamic, comprehensive approach to achieving a significant
portion of the Bureau mission.
Planning Grants. The effectiveness of the communities of this
Nation in the sanitary disposal of more than a billion pounds of solid
wastes daily is determined, in a large part, by the amount and quality of
planning that takes place, and inter- and intra-community cooperation
that is effectuated. Under present practices, it remains the State's
responsibility to develop a State solid waste management plan which
encourages, guides, and accommodates local and regional solid waste
planning efforts.
Prior to I960, few States had operative solid waste programs, and it
was partly in recognition of this that Congress included under the Solid
Waste Disposal Act the provision of grants to State and interstate
agencies of up to 50 percent of the cost of developing solid waste
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plans. The first of these grants was awarded on June 1, 1968, and since
then 41 States, plus the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico, as
well as 5 interstate agencies have been awarded over $5 million in matching
grants to plan for effective solid waste management. These grants
represent a combined total of 129 project years and 640 man-years. The
funds have been divided mainly among: survey (60%), planning (10%),
and other activities (30%), such as public relations and development of
legislation.52
The prime objective of the State and interstate grant is to foster
comprehensive Statewide programs in planning for the handling and
disposal of solid wastes. In developing their plan, the grantees
consider such factors as population growth, urban and metropolitan
development, land use planning, water pollution control, air pollution
control, regional disposal programs, and the management of solid
wastes in general.
It was recognized early that adequate planning could not go on
without reliable data on current solid waste practices. The Bureau
and the cooperating States jointly developed necessary survey forms and
a manual of instructions for conducting an on-going survey to gather
solid waste statistics. The collected data is processed by the Bureau
for the States and returned to the States for their individual use.
52Toftner, R. 0., D. D. Swavely, W. T. Dehn, and B. L. Sweeney,
comps. State solid waste planning grants, agencies, and progress--1970;
report of activities through June 30, 1970. Public Health Service
Publication No. 2109. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971
26 p.
63
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The data is serving as the basis for the National Survey of Community
Solid Waste practices; an interim report on the survey was presented
in October 1968.
Planning grant recipients render a yearly report to the Bureau of
Solid Waste Management.53 Grants usually are made for a period of three
years. Because of different levels of effort, together with
different starting dates according to the award of the planning grants,
these reports show a broad range of progress and accomplishments, with
the common element being that the first effort of each grantee has been
to survey solid waste practices and problems within his jurisdiction.
Usually, when there has been time to do so, grantees have actively
promoted legislation and the appropriate administrative regulations for
more effective control of solid waste activities. They have also
provided training for agency staffs involved with solid wastes and have
coordinated their programs with those of other related State, regional,
and local planning units. All of these efforts are aimed at the
formulation of comprehensive solid waste management plans. Many other
corollary activities are carried on as a desirable implementation to
pi anni ng.51+
A good legislative apparatus for dealing with the problem does not,
of course, by itself solve the problem. There is a built-in resistance
53Toftner, et al. State solid waste planning grants, agencies,
and progress--1970.
5I*Toftner, R. 0. Developing a state solid waste management plan.,
Public Health Service Publication No. 2031. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1970. 50 p.
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to comprehensive solid waste management, which will have a negative
effect whether that effect is recognized in planning or not. Only
quite recently have responsible planners begun to realize that the
fundamental problems of solid waste management also include such matters
as the structure of the modern community and the cultural attitudes of its
citizen, as well as considerations of technology, economics, and
resources utilization. The interrelationships of these factors and the
manner in which they affect problems of area planning are complex.
Urbanization. The urbanization following World War II revolutionized
our concepts of urban life. Because of the growth of suburbia, the
problem of solid waste management has expanded to area-wide proportions,
beyond the resolving power of the communities that existed prior to the
war. That is to say that the growth of the population has contributed
to the growth of the problem to such an extent that it can no longer be
handled by any one of the myriad of separate jurisdictions that make up
the overall community. In areas where an explosive increase in
population had a maximum impact, urbanization has progressed beyond
the limits of cities and their satellite suburbs and become a
characteristic of rural communities as well. With high land values
and heavy investment in fixed installations dedicated to specialty
enterprises, this rural sector of the community surrounds the
urban-industrial-suburban sector as epithelium that has lost its
elasticity and is a thick enough shell to have a profound effect on both
its own and the nearby cities' problems of waste management.
Cities have traditionally dealt with wastes by transporting them
beyond their own immediate confines and discarding them in the least
65
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expensive way tolerable, advancing from city dump to landfill or
incinerator as necessity compelled. Since World War II, however, freedom
to manage wastes so simply has been curtailed. The once-rural shell is
difficult to penetrate except at extremely long-haul distances, which
often must be judged to be prohibitively expensive. In most cases, however,
the alternative of retaining the wastes within the city has been even
more unsatisfactory. Land area is at a premium, and land use planning
is generally not advanced enough to include refuse disposal objectives..
Moreover, the constraint is exacerbated by air pollution considerations
that limit the combustion of wastes, as well as by the consideration that
the urban core itself may consist of several incorporated cities, each
limited by its own geographical and jurisdictional limits. In the
San Francisco Bay area, some 83 separate but impinged jurisdictions
and agencies seek to put solid wastes off on one another at 77
different locations, all of which are under the watchful eye of a most
vigorous air pollution control district.
Just as the city is confined by the surrounding rural section, it
in turn exerts pressure against the air-polluting, water-polluting,
vector-producing, and other adverse environmental potential of that sector.
Urban subdivisions press hard against the dairies, the egg and poultry
establishments, and animal feeding enterprises. In California single
installations may fatten 3,000 to 6,000 steers annually; others
maintain 10,000 to 100,000 hens. The fly-breeding potential of the 200
million cubic yards of animal manures produced each year at the zone
of contact between urban and rural installations in California is almost
66
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astronomical. Against such zones, the city presses with enforcement of
nuisance-abatement laws and extension of city limits which may overwhelm
agricultural enterprises with ruinous taxes. Both fixed taxes and the
unavailability of land further away confront the farmer with the choice
of either going out of business or solving his own envTronmental
problems. Collection of manures is expensive, and its disposal on land
beyond the confines of the community is as difficult as the disposal of
urban solid wastes.
There are other problems of solid waste management in a modern
community that derive from agriculture pursuits in a high-density
rural sector, such as the burning of tree trimmings and other plant
residues, which accentuates the air pollution problem. It is obvious
then, that in a modern community consisting of impinged urban,
industrial, suburban, and high-investment agricultural sectors, the
problem of solid waste management calls for a community-wide approach
for which the existing fragmented jurisdictions are inadequate.
Public Attitudes. The attitudes of individual citizens and their
elected officials also contribute to the problems inherent in solid
waste management. Any material becomes a waste when its owner or
producer no longer considers it of sufficient value to retain. To
suggest that if he wishes to get rid of it he should invest more
money in it, is considered absurd, despite the fact that he may object
to polluted water, smog, rats, unsightly debris, and other negative
conditions resulting from his loss of interest in ownership.
In the face of this phenomenon, engendered in a Nation in which
there was formerly room to throw away everything, many engineers and
67
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officials responsible for solid waste management have been reluctant
to do what they are paid to do. They have retreated again and again on the
dollar cost of solid waste management systems rather than helping the
public to understand that waste management is worth what it costs. The
administrative official, again operating on traditional principles, has
often mistaken a policy of no spending at all for the ideal goal of
municipal government, not realizing that the 19th-century policy of
laissez-faire, when applied to current waste problems, equals pollution
of land, water, and air.
The result has been that the public has tended consistently to
underestimate the amount it can "afford" to spend for solid waste
management. This in turn has caused dump operators to function at the
limit of public tolerance until, currently, in many localities a public
reaction against the landfill and incinerator is taking place and
producing a demand for better methods, which ultimately may involve even
higher costs.55
A realistic solid waste program must thus include awareness that
the public is largely uninformed, unwilling to invest in waste
management, and at the same time is highly sensitive to the negative
aesthetic values resulting from this very condition.
The educational program associated with the Bureau of Solid Waste
Management is clearly related to the problem of statewide and area
55Brunner, D. R., S. J. Hubbard, D. J. Keller, and J. L. Newton.
Closing open dumps. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971
19 p.
68
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planning, because of the lack of education among:the very persons who
do that planning. While public health officials are generally aware of
the nuisance and vector problems associated with- careless handling of
refuse, and engineers generally have a smattering of knowledge pertinent
to solid wastes programs, the planners, public administrators, lawyers,
and financiers who deal with urban problems get essentially no educational
introduction to the problem. Especially profound is their ignorance of
the nature and potential of alternative methods of disposal and their
effect upon land, water, and air resources. For example, a public
official who opposes landfill ing often cannot understand why incineration
or compostirag is not adopted instead. No one has explained to him that
nefther of these does more than reduce the amount and alter the nature
of materFal that still must be disposed of on land. Discussion of waste
problems then tends to center merely on costs in dollars of programs
which by themselves will not take care of the problem, no matter how
many dollars are spent. Multiply this confusion by the number of
jurisdictions involved in the consolidation of solid wastes planning, and
one can appreciate the depth of the problem involved, and the concurrent
need for the education of and in-depth consultation with those who would
be the administrators of the programs which must be put into effect.
Accomplishments. The Bureau of Solid Waste Management Regional
Representatives serve as the project officers for the planning grants
and are therefore primarily responsible for the assurance that the
grantees achieve the purposes of the grants. The DTO is responsible for
the administrative and technical management of the planning grant program.
69
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During FY 1967 and 1968, the primary effort in the planning grant
program was devoted to handling routine requests relating to development,
processing, and assessing the technical merits of State planning grant
applications. Numerous site visits were made to discuss technical
problems with State representatives. The reviewing, processing, and
funding of grants to the States was a continuing activity of the Planning
Section.
A publication was issued which listed all planning grants awarded,
the recipients, the amounts, and the period of the grant. This publication
has been periodically updated.56
Most of the effort in the planning unit in the last half of FY 1967
was devoted to formulating administrative and policy guidelines for
reporting and assessing progress on the development of State solid waste
management plans. Standards were developed for interim progress reports
and continuation-year project reports used for all continuation projects.
Copies of these standards were included with letters sent to those States
due for continuation on June 1, 1968.
State-by-State progress as of January 1969 was described in Public
Health Service Publication No. 1913. and 1970 progress abstracts for each
solid waste disposal planning grant, are in the final stages of
publication.
To further aid the States in developing their plans, the Division
has developed a set of planning guidelines that provide basic direction
56Toftner, et al. State solid waste planning grants, agencies, and
_ _ _ i s\ irt
progress 1970.
70
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in the planning process.57 These guidelines set forth the principles
required for an agency to assess and evaluate its solid waste problems,
establish objectives to overcome these problems, consider alternatives,
and select a program to achieve the selected objectives. Guidelines
are being developed for manpower planning in solid waste management.
These guidelines will be oriented toward the operational planning level
of solid waste management for any organization engaged in planning for
the recruitment, selection, and hiring of professional, skilled, and
semiskilled personnel on a long-range basis. Consultative services
are being provided to States on a continuing basis to assist in
preparing the State solid waste management plan.
Development of National Survey of Community Solid Waste
Practices. Prior to the passage of the 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act,
few States had solid waste programs, although solid waste planning was
becoming recognized as a desirable and necessary activity. It was also
becoming evident that a thorough knowledge of solid waste conditions is
prerequisite to developing comprehensive planning programs. But because
of a lack of experience and personnel, most States were unable to develop
and plan the required data-gathering activity. Thus the States, through
the Conference of State Sanitary Engineers in July 1966, recommended that
the Solid Wastes Program prepare a list of essential data and guidelines
for conducting the Statewide surveys. The response to this request
resulted in the formation of the National Survey of Community Solid Waste
Pract ices.
57Toftner. Developing a state solid waste management plan.
71
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The data listings, reporting forms, and specifications for the survey
were developed over a period of more than five-months through the joint
efforts of representatives of the Solid Wastes Program, State' agencies,
and private consultants. The Survey provides information on the location,
types and amounts of solid wastes being collected and their ultimate
disposition. In addition to providing a waste inventory, the Survey
indicates the resources (manpower, equipment, monies, facilities, etc.)
required to carry out collection, reduction, and disposal activities. An
evaluation of existing transfer, reduction, or disposal sites and
facilities is also provided.
Survey Forms. The Survey reporting forms were designed for maximum
flexibility. They may be used not only for individual communities but
are also adapted to area-wide surveys, provided the areas are established
on a geographically well-defined "community" basis, such as a county or
a sanitation district. In order to provide flexibility, three separate
forms are used: one to gather general information on the storage,
collection, and disposal of solid wastes in the "community" and the other
two for disposal site descriptions and evaluation purposes.58
The Community Description Report is used to obtain comprehensive
information on the community's solid waste practices. Information about
the community's size, organization for solid waste handling, its storage,
collection and disposal systems and their costs, with the amount of
58Muhich, A. J., A. J. Klee, and P. W. Britton. Preliminary data
analysis; 1968 national survey of community solid waste practices.
Public Health Service Publication No. 1867. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1968. ^83 p.
72
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solid wastes collected and disposed of is obtained. To this end, the
form embraces four broad information categories: (l) storage, (2)
collection, (3) disposal, (k) budget and fiscal.
The Land Disposal Report is used to determine the disposal
capabilities, costs, and method of operation of all land disposal sites.
The Facility Investigation Report provides information about the operating
characteristics and capabilities of all solid waste reduction or disposal
facilities within a State. The types of facilities to be considered
include incinerators, grinders, crushers, transfer stations (land or
water), compost plants, conical burners, and hog feeding lots. Both
disposal site forms cover three general areas of information: (1)
description and evaluation of site, (2) quantitative data, and (3) fiscal
data. In addition, the facility form contains a separate section on the
design features and operational characteristics of incinerators.
Survey Coverage. Initially it was recommended that the Survey
examine as a minimum all incorporated places with a population of 5,000
or more plus all Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA's).
Because of more specific needs, however, the States participating in the
National Survey found it desirable to extend coverage to the smaller
communities as well. Thus the actual extent of the survey far exceeded
the suggested minimum.
All land disposal sites and facilities at which public and private
collectors deposit solid wastes were to be surveyed, regardless of the
size of the community the site served or whether it was publicly or
privately owned or operated. However, so-called "promiscuous"
unauthorized dumps at roadside or in public or private areas on which
73
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dumping occurs on an irregular or infrequent basis are not
considered land-«Hsposal sites for the Survey. Similarly, on-site
dijjj&stil or reduction facilities such as apartment house incinerators
and household garbage grinders are not considered facilities for the
Survey. In addition, private disposal sites or facilities owned and
operated by industrial, commercial, or institutional establishments and
used solely for reduction or disposal of their own generated solid
wastes were not surveyed. The same holds true for private or on-site
disposal of agricultural wastes. Although some information on industrial
and agricultural wastes was obtained on a community basis, in general
no attempt was made to conduct specific industrial or agricultural surveys.
Implementation. Implementation of the National Survey was carried
out by the State agency receiving the Federal solid waste planning grant
in the first 12 to 18 months of the grant period. To obtain reliable
data, the Survey was performed as a field investigation, with individuals
or teams of data collectors actually visiting the communities and sites.
Information was obtained either by personal interview or direct
observation; under no circumstances was a form completed on a mailout
and return basis.
In order to obtain consistent information for use in conducting
the National Survey, the Solid Wastes Program developed a manual of
instructions, including sample problems.59 Each participating State
59Manual of instructions and sample problem for use in conducting
the national survey of community solid waste practices. [Cincinnati],
Solid Wastes Program, July 19&7- &5 P-
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anual discussing in detail the survey forms,
« ^
^ o* .id nomenclature.
^itional consistency, the Solid Wastes Program
i \
rs and workshops on the Survey with State personnel.
*
"^personal interview technique and by providing sufficient
fo the interviewer through the instruction manual and seminar
ations, it was anticipated that the National Survey Data would
,a to be both uniform and reliable.
Recording and Processing Survey Data. The States participating in
the National Survey reported their survey results to the Solid Wastes
Program by returning completed Federal forms, appropriate State-designated
forms, or returning survey data transferred to punched cards. The first
method was the usual.
Upon receipt of the survey information, the data was verified, coded,
and keypunched by personnel of the Solid Wastes Program. The coding
systems and the manner in which the data were transferred onto standard
punched cards was described in detail so that the participating States
could do their own data processing and analysis if desired.60
Data processing by a Honeywel1-^00 series computer then produced
tabulated computer printouts of the information in a format designed to
facilitate rapid examination of the raw data. Copies of the printouts
(plus punched cards) were returned to the States so that errors in coding
or keypunching could be corrected and the data verified.
^Coding manual; the national survey of solid wastes practices
Cincinnati, Solid Wastes Program, September 1967. 63 p.
75
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Data Presentation. The information available
^tn ,
Survey on July I, 1968, has been presented in its bas e /V^, .
since the raw data is voluminous and requires basic staf''77- ^
to summarize it in usable form, a preliminary data analys./
/v
computer.61 ~t/00
Conclusion. The value of the National Survey conducted
beyond question: for the first time, the significant data has
assembled, and it is now possible to begin to plan for future soi
waste management programs at the national level, as well as at the i
and local levels, with some assurance that the plans made will correi
with the situation that exists. The dimensions of the solid waste
disposal problem, now that they can be estimated, are perhaps even
greater than was realized by Congress at the time of passing the Solid
Waste Disposal Act of 1965. But if the National Survey of 1968 has
presented us with an almost frighteningly clear picture of the problems
that now exist, it has also provided us with the first and most
indispensable tool for dealing with those problems: the 1968 Survey of
Community Solid Waste Practices itself.
Techn i ca1 Ass i s tance. Over 80 percent of the existing solid waste
management systems in the United States are considered to be unacceptable.
This can be attributed to many factors such as lack of adequate planning,
manpower, and budget; a lack of the application of sound management
principles; and nonuti1ization of acceptable current technology.
51Muhich, et al. Preliminary data analysis,
76
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The application of good technical and management practices to these
existing systems to bring about improvements is needed and justified, and
is authorized by PL 89-272 [Sec. 202 (b) (2)]. It is reasonable to accept
the premise that a national solid waste program with resources and
capabilities to draw together all acceptable practices for application of
problems can greatly aid in achieving the needed improvements required to
assure maximum utilization of the nation's resources while protecting
the environment. In fact, only on a national basis can all of the current
or emerging new technology available be collected, interpreted, and
applied across regional and geographical lines.
The application of technology to specific and real problems at the
local operating level can be optimized by the provision of direct
assistance in the form of manpower, studies, evaluations, and
recommendations. Direct contact with the local technical operations
of solid waste management can be our most effective method of achieving
improvements, as well as developing a strong public and political
awareness of the problems of solid waste management and establishing
a base of public support for the programs of the Bureau.
In addition, the technical assistance program of the Bureau serves as
a feedback mechanism to the research, development, and demonstration
activities of the Bureau in identifying areas requiring new knowledge
acquisition, technology developments not published in the literature,
systems demonstration, and specific needs of solid waste management
systems operations.
The provision of technical assistance by the Bureau began early
after the establishment of the Office of Solid Wastes (OSW) in January
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1966. Early priorities of the technical services branch of OSW were
the establishment of an operating organization, recruitment of staff,
and, most important, the initiation of the planning grant program and
the National Survey. Thus, the establishment of the technical services
branch in Cincinnati in August 1966 was followed by an intense effort to
train and orient the staff and to develop capabilities so that the needed
direct and indirect assistance activities could be initiated. Historically,
the first identifiable direct assistance project was response to a
request from the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration and the
Corps of Engineers to study and evaluate the potential of pollution
from several existing dumps that were to be innundated by a reservoir
under construction in Shelbyville, Illinois. Field studies were made
and a report with recommendations was submitted to the appropriate
agencies. A followup with the Corps indicated that Division
recommendations were followed.
Other early identifiable direct assistance efforts were the
Bullitt County, Ky., and District of Columbia incinerator studies.^2 The
incinerator study was a highly significant step forward in the
maturation of DTO. It represented the Division's first entry into a
rather controversial area and was also one of the first times that
personnel from different portions of the Bureau participated in a joint
study.
52Report on the municipal solid wastes incinerator system of the
District of Columbia. Cincinnati, U.S. Public Health Service,
June 1967. 77 p. Reprinted 1967, 1968.
78
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The growth of the Division has broadened its capabilities to provide
assistance authorized by the Act. Today, the Division has a capability in
most areas of solid waste management. Intramural projects, besides
collecting and disseminating badly needed data, are also improving the
capability of the Division to provide assistance.
A review and analysis of the Division's technical assistance
activities will provide some insight into the nature and
characteristics of solid waste management problems nationally, and the
areas requiring Bureau and Division attention. Although recordkeeping
on assistance did not really begin until FY 1968, and the combining of
the former technical services and systems and operations planning
activities in 1969 limits the data available to DTO, it is able to
provide an interesting analysis of its activities and subsequently the
Bureau's interests.
Since FY 1968, the Division has experienced a 100 percent annual
growth of requests for assistance. In FY 1968, 280 requests were
received; in FY 1969, 620 requests. During the first quarter of FY 1970,
151 requests were received. Projections for FY 1970 are to receive and
respond to 750 requests.
Approximately 10 percent of requests required travel by Division
staff, while the remaining 90 percent were handled by correspondence and
telephone. Of the direct assistance manpower expended, k
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crossed several waste types, which could be expected as a greater number
of the receptors were not specific-waste category oriented and were
concerned with two or more waste types. The other two significant groups
of requests (11 percent each) are related to the management problems of
residential and industrial solid wastes. Eighty percent of Division
manpower (approximately 18 man-years) was utilized to support those
requests that were concerned with two or more waste types.
The Division has also analyzed the source of requests as they
related to the various unit process operations of solid waste
management. As in the waste type source, the greatest percentage (40
percent) was of a general nature which cross the lines of two or more
of the solid waste management unit operations. As might be expected, the
other two major distributions of requests were related to the problems
associated with incineration and disposal of solid waste on the land;
these percentages were 20 percent and 17 percent respectively. Eight-five
percent of direct assistance manpower was expended to support the above
three categories of requests.
The Division also analyzed the type of professional resources
utilized to respond to the requests. Sixty-five percent of requests
were engineering-oriented, 20 percent required data development resources,
and 7 percent required the legislative and systems control resources of
the Division. It should be pointed out that the direct assistance
resource allocation for statistical services computer technology and
planning \s not necessarily a true indication of the amount of
statistical services provided in these areas. A great deal of its
80
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capabilities here are utilized to support other assistance activities and
therefore provide a very essential part of the Divison's responsiveness to
the receptors.
Engineering. Many solid waste management systems in the country
are inadequate and unacceptable. Often communities and industry are not
aware of the problems related to inadequate solid waste management or
methods of correcting the problems.
Technical assistance is provided in many ways as the various
subprojects to be discussed will illustrate. However, the most obvious
form of assistance that can be provided at this time is in engineering
through the application of existing technology to improve existing
conditions. This is accomplished by the provision of available
information, discussion of specific problems, and conduct of studies on
various systems.
During the first half of FY 1970 the Division responded to almost
200 requests for engineering technical assistance. A simple analysis
shows that the nature of these requests is quite similar to that
presented previously, but with a slightly greater emphasis on incineration,
land disposal, and collection.
An example of engineering assistance by the provision of available
information is that provided to the National Air Pollution Control
Administration (NAPCA) on their contract work to study and evaluate
certain factors of incineration that require a good knowledge of the
composition of municipal wastes to be burned. NAPCA could not provide
the contractor with this information. On request, the Bureau's Division
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of Technical Operations compiled and provided information on composition
from over 20 studies conducted by the Division and obtained through
the Bureau's grant mechanisms. Following this, assistance was given in
interpreting and analyzing these data.
Examples of more extensive efforts requiring field studies follow.
Study of Recreation Solid Wastes for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture--Forest Service. The Forest Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, requested that the Bureau of Solid Waste Management conduct
a study of National Forest recreation areas. The study was to establish
waste generation rates for major recreation activities and to determine
the cost of solid waste handling for selected Forest Service districts.
Following a series of preliminary meetings between Bureau
and Forest Service personnel and a February 1968 trial study at the
Ocala National Forest, Florida, the Forest Service submitted a list of
16 sites for study. During the summer of 1968, two study teams, each
containing two Bureau engineers and two Forest Service personnel,
studied solid waste composition and generation in 11 National Forests.
An additional study of two winter recreation areas was made by the
Forest Service. A report of the findings of the study has been
prepared and has been published.63
This study provides the most comprehensive information on solid
waste management in recreational areas that has been published since
63Spooner, C. S. Solid waste management in recreational forest
areas. Public Health Service Publication No. 1991- Washington, U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1971. 96 p.
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received copies of this manual discussing in detail the survey forms,
their interpretation and nomenclature.
To promote additional consistency, the Solid Wastes Program
conducted seminars and workshops on the Survey with State personnel.
By using the personal interview technique and by providing sufficient
guidance to the interviewer through the instruction manual and seminar
presentations, it was anticipated that the National Survey Data would
prove to be both uniform and reliable.
Recording and Processing Survey Data. The States participating in
the National Survey reported their survey results to the Solid Wastes
Program by returning completed Federal forms, appropriate State-designated
forms, or returning survey data transferred to punched cards. The first
method was the usual.
Upon receipt of the survey information, the data was verified, coded,
and keypunched by personnel of the Solid Wastes Program. The coding
systems and the manner in which the data were transferred onto standard
punched cards was described in detail so that the participating States
could do their own data processing and analysis if desired.60
Data processing by a Honeywel1-400 series computer then produced
tabulated computer printouts of the information in a format designed to
facilitate rapid examination of the raw data. Copies of the printouts
(plus punched cards) were returned to the States so that errors in coding
or keypunching could be corrected and the data verified.
°°Coding manual; the national survey of solid wastes practices,
Cincinnati, Solid Wastes Program, September 19&7. 63 p.
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Data Presentation. The information available from the National
Survey on July I, 1968, has been presented in its basic form. But
since the raw data is voluminous and requires basic statistical reduction
to summarize it in usable form, a preliminary data analysis was made by
computer.61
Conclusion. The value of the National Survey conducted in 1968 is
beyond question: for the first time, the significant data has been
assembled, and it is now possible to begin to plan for future solid
waste management programs at the national level, as well as at the regional
and local levels, with some assurance that the plans made will correspond
with the situation that exists. The dimensions of the solid waste
disposal problem, now that they can be estimated, are perhaps even
greater than was realized by Congress at the time of passing the Solid
Waste Disposal Act of 1965. But if the National Survey of 1968 has
presented us with an almost frighten!ngly clear picture of the problems
that now exist, it has also provided us with the first and most
indispensable tool for dealing with those problems: the 1968 Survey of
Community Solid Waste Practices itself.
Technical Assistance. Over 80 percent of the existing solid waste
management systems in the United States are considered to be unacceptable.
This can be attributed to many factors such as lack of adequate planning,
manpower, and budget; a lack of the application of sound management
principles; and nonuti1ization of acceptable current technology.
61Muhich, et al. Preliminary data analysis,
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The application of good technical and management practices to these
existing systems to bring about improvements is needed and justified, and
is authorized by PL 89-272 [Sec. 202 (b) (2)]. It is reasonable to accept
the premise that a national solid waste program with resources and
capabilities to draw together all acceptable practices for application of
problems can greatly aid in achieving the needed improvements required to
assure maximum utilization of the nation's resources while protecting
the environment. In fact, only on a national basis can all of the current
or emerging new technology available be collected, interpreted, and
applied across regional and geographical lines.
The application of technology to specific and real problems at the
local operating level can be optimized by the provision of direct
assistance in the form of manpower, studies, evaluations, and
recommendations. Direct contact with the local technical operations
of solid waste management can be our most effective method of achieving
improvements, as well as developing a strong public and political
awareness of the problems of solid waste management and establishing
a base of public support for the programs of the Bureau.
In addition, the technical assistance program of the Bureau serves as
a feedback mechanism to the research, development, and demonstration
activities of the Bureau in identifying areas requiring new knowledge
acquisition, technology developments not published in the literature,
systems demonstration, and specific needs of solid waste management
systems operations.
The provision of technical assistance by the Bureau began early
after the establishment of the Office of Solid Wastes (OSW) in January
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1966. Early priorities of the technical services branch of OSW were
the establishment of an operating organization, recruitment of staff,
and, most important, the initiation of the planning grant program and
the National Survey. Thus, the establishment of the technical services
branch in Cincinnati in August 1966 was followed by an intense effort to
train and orient the staff and to develop capabilities so that the needed
direct and indirect assistance activities could be initiated. Historically,
the first identifiable direct assistance project was response to a
request from the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration and the
Corps of Engineers to study and evaluate the potential of pollution
from several existing dumps that were to be innundated by a reservoir
under construction in Shelbyville, Illinois. Field studies were made
and a report with recommendations was submitted to the appropriate
agencies. A followup with the Corps indicated that Division
recommendations were followed.
Other early identifiable direct assistance efforts were the
Bullitt County, Ky., and District of Columbia incinerator studies.62 The
incinerator study was a highly significant step forward in the
maturation of DTO. It represented the Division's first entry into a
rather controversial area and was also one of the first times that
personnel from different portions of the Bureau participated in a joint
study.
62Report on the municipal solid wastes incinerator system of the
District of Columbia. Cincinnati, U.S. Public Health Service,
June 1967. 77 p. Reprinted 1967, 1968.
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The growth of the Division has broadened its capabilities to provide
assistance authorized by the Act. Today, the Division has a capability in
most areas of solid waste management. Intramural projects, besides
collecting and disseminating badly needed data, are also improving the
capability of the Division to provide assistance.
A review and analysis of the Division's technical assistance
activities will provide some insight into the nature and
characteristics of solid waste management problems nationally, and the
areas requiring Bureau and Division attention. Although recordkeeping
on assistance did not really begin until FY 1968, and the combining of
the former technical services and systems and operations planning
activities in 1969 limits the data available to DTO, it is able to
provide an interesting analysis of its activities and subsequently the
Bureau's interests.
Since FY 1968, the Division has experienced a 100 percent annual
growth of requests for assistance. In FY 1968, 280 requests were
received; in FY 1969, 620 requests. During the first quarter of FY 1970,
151 requests were received. Projections for FY 1970 are to receive and
respond to 750 requests.
Approximately 10 percent of requests required travel by Division
staff, while the remaining 90 percent were handled by correspondence and
telephone. Of the direct assistance manpower expended, 45 percent
(approximately 10.7 man-years) was utilized to support the 10 percent of
the requests that required travel.
It is interesting to note the distribution of request sources as
related to the type of solid wastes. Sixty-nine percent of the requests
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crossed several waste types, which could be expected as a greater number
of the receptors were not specific-waste category oriented and were
concerned with two or more waste types. The other two significant groups
of requests (11 percent each) are related to the management problems of
residential and industrial solid wastes. Eighty percent of Division
manpower (approximately 18 man-years) was utilized to support those
requests that were concerned with two or more waste types.
The Division has also analyzed the source of requests as they
related to the various unit process operations of solid waste
management. As in the waste type source, the greatest percentage (^0
percent) was of a genera] nature which cross the lines of two or more
of the solid waste management unit operations. As might be expected, the
other two major distributions of requests were related to the problems
associated with incineration and disposal of solid waste on the land;
these percentages were 20 percent and 17 percent respectively. Eight-five
percent of direct assistance manpower was expended to support the above
three categories of requests.
The Division also analyzed the type of professional resources
utilized to respond to the requests. Sixty-five percent of requests
were engineering-oriented, 20 percent required data development resources,
and 7 percent required the legislative and systems control resources of
the Division. It should be pointed out that the direct assistance
resource allocation for statistical services computer technology and
planning is not necessarily a true indication of the amount of
statistical services provided in these areas. A great deal of its
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capabilities here are utilized to support other assistance activities and
therefore provide a very essential part of the Divison's responsiveness to
the receptors.
Engineering. Many solid waste management systems in the country
are inadequate and unacceptable. Often communities and industry are not
aware of the problems related to inadequate solid waste management or
methods of correcting the problems.
Technical assistance is provided in many ways as the various
subprojects to be discussed will illustrate. However, the most obvious
form of assistance that can be provided at this time is in engineering
through the application of existing technology to improve existing
conditions. This is accomplished by the provision of available
information, discussion of specific problems, and conduct of studies on
various systems.
During the first half of FY 1970 the Division responded to almost
200 requests for engineering technical assistance. A simple analysis
shows that the nature of these requests is quite similar to that
presented previously, but with a slightly greater emphasis on incineration,
land disposal, and collection.
An example of engineering assistance by the provision of available
information is that provided to the National Air Pollution Control
Administration (NAPCA) on their contract work to study and evaluate
certain factors of incineration that require a good knowledge of the
composition of municipal wastes to be burned. NAPCA could not provide
the contractor with this information. On request, the Bureau's Division
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of Technical Operations compiled and provided information on composition
from over 20 studies conducted by the Division and obtained through
the Bureau's grant mechanisms. Following this, assistance was given in
interpreting and analyzing these data.
Examples of more extensive efforts requiring field studies follow.
Study of Recreation Solid Wastes for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture--Forest Service. The Forest Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, requested that the Bureau of Solid Waste Management conduct
a study of National Forest recreation areas. The study was to establish
waste generation rates for major recreation activities and to determine
the cost of solid waste handling for selected Forest Service districts.
Following a series of preliminary meetings between Bureau
and Forest Service personnel and a February 1968 trial study at the
Ocala National Forest, Florida, the Forest Service submitted a list of
16 sites for study. During the summer of 1968, two study teams, each
containing two Bureau engineers and two Forest Service personnel,
studied solid waste composition and generation in 11 National Forests.
An additional study of two winter recreation areas was made by the
Forest Service. A report of the findings of the study has been
prepared and has been published.63
This study provides the most comprehensive information on solid
waste management in recreational areas that has been published since
63Spooner, C. S. Solid waste management in recreational forest
areas. Public Health Service Publication No. 1991. Washington, U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1971- 96 p.
82
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1955- The Forest Service anticipates being able to make substantial
improvements in their storage, collection, and disposal operations
based on recommendations contained in this report. Also, substantial
economic improvements are possible by applying the equations developed
for optimizing the management systems. It is anticipated that many
other agencies at the Federal, State, and local levels will also be able
to use this information in planning new recreational facility needs or
improving operations at those already in existence.
River Rouge, Michigan, Collection System Study. The Mayor of River
Rouge, Michigan, requested assistance from the Bureau in his efforts to
improve the solid waste collection system of his city. Examples of
conditions that needed correction included the use of 55~gallon drums
for storage, irregular and excessive collection schedules that included
residential service from two to five times per week, and the use of
inappropriate and antiquated collection vehicles. It was determined
that assistance could be provided and, at the same time, valuable data
could be gathered for our own use in studies of collection systems.
A one-week field study was conducted during November 19&9,
applying techniques developed for the Satellite Vehicle Collection
System Study (Scooter Study).61* In addition, the system was analyzed from
the standpoint of optimizing storage-container and collection-truck
^Perkins, R. A. Satellite vehicle systems for solid waste collection;
evaluation and application. Washington, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1971- (To be distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va.) See also, Delaney, J. E. Satellite vehicle
waste collection systems; summary report. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1971. (In press.)
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selection, number of crews required and crew size, type of service
rendered (i.e., backyard, curbside, alley, etc.), and routing.
The report is in press, but already the city has reduced its
number of collection crews from six to five and is making definite
efforts to obtain appropriate storage containers and collection vehicles,
and to improve collection routes.
Planning. As specified under the Solid Waste Disposal Act
(P.L. 89-272, Title II, Sections 205 and 206), the Bureau is committed
to fostering comprehensive Statewide and interstate programs and planning
for the disposal of solid waste. This includes the coordination of
solid waste management systems with those for air and water pollution
control and other related State, interstate, regional and local
planning activities. To aid in completion of plans sufficient to guide
States and interstates, the Bureau provides technical assistance in
professional planning to apply methods and techniques of planning,
management, finance, and public administration.
Because of shortage of personnel in solid waste agencies having
the necessary background to develop a solid waste management plan in its
entirety, the Bureau developed a technical assistance project for
providing consultation in the methodologies of planning in order to
increase the likelihood that adequate plans will be completed.
In view of the Bureau's commitment, the Planning Section, Division
of Technical Operations, provides on-site consultation in the
methodologies of planning and coordination with other agencies and plans.
Specifically, assistance is provided in planning process system
installation and plan formulation, data analysis, development of program
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objectives, and the definition of and encouragement for adopting modern
management techniques needed to plan, organize, coordinate, direct,
control, and evaluate results of solid waste management systems.
Guidelines (developed under project TO 1^.1/0) are used as a consultation
tool in this project.
Since this project began, 37 States, 3 interstate agenu -, and 1
territory have been provided on-site planning consultation on at least
one occasion. Two or more consultation meetings have been conducted in
2k States.
Also, a National Symposium of State and Interstate Solid Waste
Planning Agencies was held, at which general topics and workshops
provided information and discussion about the planning process and
data needs, legislation, intergovernmental and public relations, and
plan implementation to over 150 attendees. The meetings included a
solid waste management panel session for the 1969 National Planning
Conference of the American Society of Planning Officials. This panel
was organized to guide local, regional, and State planning professionals
and officials toward solid waste planning within their jurisdictions.
Over 100 persons attended this session.65
Management Sciences. Data on current economics as well as assistance
in the application of management techniques are valuable aids at the
65Gluckman, L. A., ed. Planning for solid waste management; symposium
of state and interstate solid waste planning agencies, St. Louis, September
9-11, 1969. Public Health Service Publication No. 2093. Washington, U.S.
Government Printing Office. (in Press.)
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local level. In fact, technical assitance can take two main forms:
assistance in evaluating new technology, and assistance in optimizing
presently-used techniques. In both cases, management sciences techniques
play a significant role.
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) was applied to
the San Diego demonstration project. A report was prepared and submitted
outlining the procedures to be used.
Management sciences technical assistance has been provided to
many on-going projects funded by the Bureau of Solid Waste Management.
Division personnel have provided assistance to the project at Wichita
Falls, Texas, relating to simulation of network and routing problems.
Assistance on the Raleigh, North Carolina, demonstration grants has
centered around a clo^e monitoring and constructive criticism of work
relating to the project. Intensive review and advice have been rendered
on many demonstration grant reports. Also, assistance in locating
disposal sites using the fixed charge algorithm was supplied to the
Tocks Island Regional Advisory Council.
In the area of economics, the Division has developed a strong
capability for technical assistance. Cost accounting systems have
been developed and are either implemented or will soon be installed in:
Kansas City, Missouri; Chilton County, Alabama; Helena, Montana; Guam,
Department of Public Works; Northwest Georgia Regional Health Advisory
Council Inc.; Southern West Virginia Regional Health Council Inc.;
New Orleans, Louisiana; Ogden, Utah; Dayton, Ohio. The Charles
County Community College in La Plata, Maryland, will use these systems
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in their courses on waste management. Accounting and PERT systems for
the Bureau's publishing and clearance operations office have been designed
and installed.
In the economic assessment area, assistance has been rendered
in composting and incineration. A comprehensive report on the costs of
composting was developed for the Johnson City, Tennessee, and Gainesville,
Florida, composting plants. This information is being utilized to
assess the future of composting technology.
Division personnel have participated in training lectures and
seminars. A constant attempt has been made to disseminate information
through formal presentation at professional meetings. Members of the
Management Sciences Section also participated actively in Model City
State Planning activities, and a NACO conference on solid waste
management.
Computer Technology. The Bureau of Solid Waste Management is
committed to the collection, preparation, and dissemination of data
useful for determining the feasibility of improved solid waste
techniques and for responding to requests for scientific and technical
information. This data and the relationships that can be shown from
it are a necessary base in providing assistance to State and local
governments, other Federal agencies, and industry to improve their
capabilities to meet the solid waste management problems of the Nation.
Since this encompasses a national effort to provide the service,
tremendous amounts of data are gathered. Linked with the need for
timeliness of the information, the need to know now, this effort would
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be greatly hampered by use of manual procedures. Effective management
depends heavily on information, its availability, accuracy, and content.
It is imperative that modern, up-to-date techniques of electronic data
processing be fully exploited. The complexities of both computer science
and solid waste management make a strong in-house data processing
capability essential.
Computer programs are developed which provide the Bureau with
the capability for attacking the Nation's solid waste problem on
two fronts: (l) by providing direct assistance to operating personnel,
be they State agencies, consultants, or industry, in the form of timely
relevant information; (2) by providing the Bureau with an increased
capability in preparing for the distribution of relevant knowledge on
solid waste management.
Specific technical assistance aspects of this activity are to
develop, test, and implement scientific and statistical computational
systems for use on the IBM 1130 and Honeywell 400 computers. Another
objective is to provide programming support in the area of computer
sciences and related fields, including systems analysis and data
presentation. Although the development of computational systems is
machine-dependent and oriented toward the activities of the Bureau,
the outputs from such systems, namely tabulations and summaries,
directly assist State and local governments and industry in improving
their capabilities to meet the Nation's solid waste problems.
Statistics. Statisticians familiar with the field of solid waste
management are a scarce resource. In fact, Bureau participation with
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other public or private agencies or groups has indicated that statistical
assistance is not readily available. The Bureau is committed to a great
data collection effort. Innovations are being studied. Predictive
abilities are being developed. The success or failure of these efforts
depends in part on their statistical validity. The need for a strong
statistical resource is, therefore, evident.
This technical assistance activity makes readily available to the
Bureau statistical competence familiar with the subject matter of solid
waste management. Statistical services are provided both in-house
projects and for the Bureau's activities with other public or private
agencies or groups. Such services include regression analysis, design
of sample surveys, design and analysis of experiments, evaluation and
analysis of data from field studies, prediction and forecasting, and
estimation.
Models have been developed to predict costs of collection systems,
incinerator costs, amount of solid waste per residential dwelling, solid
waste generated by commercial establishments, productive time for
satellite collection vehicles, and productive time for conventional
equi pment.
As a follow-up to the National Survey of Solid Waste Practices,
the Basic Data Branch of DTO is developing forms and procedures for a
survey of industry and agriculture. Suggestions have been given on the
design and implementation of that survey. Finally, the Bureau, through
contractors, is interested in information about industrial solid waste,
both quantitative and qualitative. Most contractors are proceeding on a
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sampling basis. Many, however, needed assistance in setting up the
necessary statistical procedures. In addition, the Bureau is interested
in models for predicting industrial solid waste quantities. Again,
contractors have needed assistance in this endeavor.
Data Development. The general unacceptabi1ity of solid waste
management systems in the United States can be attributed to many factors,
one of which is the lack of readily available quantitative and
qualitative information and data which is essential for the proper design
and operation of systems.
The Basic Data Branch has the primary responsibility of providing
assistance in the form of basic data and information about all aspects
of solid waste management which can aid communities and agencies to plan,
design, and operate acceptable solid waste management systems. The level
of effort of assistance varies from merely providing existing information
and data, to comprehensive literature searches to obtain the information,
to the development of the necessary information and data through field
studies and investigations and contracts. During FY 19&9. the Basic
Data Branch responded to 135 requests with five requiring field
investigations. In addition, DTO is conducting a series of contract
studies to collect basic data in some of the most deficient areas. The
contracts are described in the current edition of Public Health Service
Publication No. 1897.
Legislation. Legal assistance and advice is provided, on request,
to States, municipalities, private businesses, and individuals regarding
solid waste legislation and rules and regulations relating to its control.
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Such requests for assistance include copies of existing ordinances,
bills, and statutes or a review of a draft at either level. The Bureau,
in complying with the request, can guide the recipient into channels
which will encourage the development of either a State act or local
ordinance along comprehensive waste management lines. Solid waste
management acts and rules and regulations, submitted by Bureau
Regional Representatives, are reviewed with recommendations being
returned to be forwarded to the requestor.
Several requests have been received for local ordinances, such as
one received by Region II from a Councilman of the Township of
Parsippany, Troy Hills, New Jersey. His request, and others, have
been met by supplying a package of ordinances assembled by DTO.
The Region III Federal Solid Waste Management Representative had a
request from a Professor of Engineering, University of West Virginia, a
member of the service committee to the advisory committee to the State
legislative body, for representative acts to be used in the drafting of
a State solid waste disposal act.
A law firm in New York City asked for and was provided bills and
enacted legislation in the waste disposal field.
A proposed New York Health Code was submitted for the Acting
Director, Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, Department of Health, City of
New York. Proposed solid waste disposal acts for Georgia and Tennessee
were reviewed at the Regional Representative's request. The DTO Guidelines
Section assisted in these.
A very detailed project was initiated by the National Solid Wastes
Management Association in a request to develop a model contract for the
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operation of a sanitary landfill. This has been completed and will include
work by the Planning, Guidelines, and Management Sciences Sections. The
same source has forwarded a draft for a model collection contract which
will be published under joint authorship by the Bureau.
ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970 (cont'd.)
Training Operations
The establishment of a Solid Wastes Training Activity was also
authorized by the Act. The purpose of this activity is to alleviate
the shortage of trained technical and nontechnical personnel in the
solid waste management field, The effect has been organized along two
basic lines: training grants to institutions of higher education, and
an in-house training program.66
Training Grants are awarded to colleges and universities to
establish and expand graduate programs in solid waste technology and
management. In the past, few graduate-school candidates in the
environmental health disciplines elected to do graduate work in the
solid waste field because of the tendency of the engineering profession
as well as public officials to give the solid waste programs low
priorities. The financial help provided by the Bureau of Solid Waste
Management training grants will help to relieve the critical shortage of
technical personnel in the field. Through FY 1968, a total of $9^3,000
had been awarded by the U.S. Public Health Service for solid waste
training to the following universities: Drexel Institute of Technology,
66Lefke. Summaries of solid waste research and training grants,
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University of Florida, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of
Kansas, University of Michigan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
University of Texas, University of West Virginia, University of Houston,
and the University of Illinois.
The training in solid waste management directly performed by the
Federal Government has been conducted by the Solid Waste Training
Operation, Office of Training and Manpower Development, Environmental
Control Administration. This effort is directed principally toward
the presentation of a series of regularly scheduled courses, generally
a week in duration, at the Training Institute's facilities in
Cincinnati or at other locations throughout the United States. Courses
with equivalent content are not generally presented elsewhere by either
public or private agencies. Course content emphasizes current practices
acceptable from both the public health and economic viewpoints. The material
is revised and updated as necessary for each presentation. Professional
personnel with solid waste management responsibilities from manufacturers of
equipment, consulting engineering firms, Federal, State and local
health agencies, Armed Forces personnel, public works officials, and
operators of private refuse handling operations, are typical of the
participants attending the regularly scheduled courses.
Courses Offered. The staff in solid waste training was assembled
in the summer of 1966. Prior to that time, training courses were conducted
with considerable dependence on guest lecturers.
The training operations staff and funding was transferred to the
training program of the National Center for Urban and Industrial Health
when the Solid Wastes Program was made a part of the latter organization.
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The staff remained intact and continued to serve the training needs of
the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, while having available the
facilities of the Environmental Control Administration.
The Elements of Solid Waste Management course was given
early emphasis. As a general presentation of solid waste problems and
handling practices, it was, and remains, the basic course in solid
waste management. It is presented more often than any other course and
continues to be heavily subscribed. More specialized offerings in
sanitary landfill principles, principles of incineration, composting
methods, health and safety in solid waste handling, solid waste handling--
field evaluation, and solid waste operations management followed quickly.
A solid waste orientation course (No. 650) was created to draw the attention
of elected and public works officials to the dimensions of the solid waste
problem and to the developing State and Federal solid waste programs. The
need for this course is now largely ended and others are taking its place.
In the future courses will be increasingly offered in the field;
more time will be given to assisting in the training of solid waste
handling personnel at the foremen level, at sanitary landfill and
incinerator locations, where the opportunity and demand develop.
Participation in university-sponsored seminars on solid waste training
activities has become more prevalent, and requests for this assistance
are on the increase. A visual aid library was established, which includes
many slides depicting various aspects of solid waste disposal.
Examples of the courses offered by the solid waste training section are
listed below.
Elements of Solid Waste Management. This one-week course includes
broad coverage of the technical aspects and new developments in the field
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of solid waste management. Lectures, field trips, and classroom
demonstration are supplemented with homework problems.
Sanitary Landfi1l--Principies. The methodology of sanitary landfill
operation and the basic considerations necessary for planning a sanitary
landfill are presented in the sanitary landfill course. Other topics
covered include an understanding of the many public health, aesthetic,
and economic advantages that a sanitary landfill offers in comparisdn with
an open dump; the steps necessary in dump closing or conversion to
sanitary landfill; and the equipment and auxiliary facilities needed to
operate a sanitary landfill properly.
Principles of Incineration. The factors necessary to evaluate and
design municipal incinerators are presented. State and local public
health engineers and sanitarians concerned with incinerators find this
course particularly valuable.
Composting Methods. The principles of design, fundamentals of
operations, and future potential for composting operations in the United
States are presented. The course is of particular interest to professional
engineers and sanitarians engaged in the evaluation and design of
composting facilities.
Solid Waste Operations Management. A field course is offered that
emphasizes particular operations with the required local requirements and
cri teria.
In the first year of direct training operations, two courses were
presented with a federal effort of 6k$ man-days to 129 trainees; by fiscal
year 1970, there were approximately seven times as many course presentations
(Table 5).
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TABLE 5
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT TRAINING OPERATIONS
(Fiscal Years 1966-70)
FY
FY
FY
FY
FY
Tra
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
Totals
ining Grants.
Number
of courses
presented
2
7
13
13
14
49
For a complete
Number of
trai nees
129
378
691
451
659
2,308
description of
Number of
man-days
645
990
2,107
1,790
2,189
7,721
training gram
including funding, see the current edition of Public Health Service
No. 1596. The following descriptions illustrate the diversity of training
grants awarded in recent years.
Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Under
this grant a training program was initiated in solid waste management at
the master's-degree level. The studies are established as a specialized
curriculum within the environmental engineering and science program. The
emphasis \s on solid wastes with graduates trained in community solid
waste management and for administration of State and Federal solid waste
programs. Depending upon the electives selected and prior education,
students are candidates for degrees in environmental engineering, civil
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engineering, and science. The curriculum provides courses in
environmental health design and operation of collection and disposal
systems, as well as in general engineering, planning, administration,
and management. Besides the interdisciplinary approach at the
Institute, a close working relationship exists between the Institute
and State and local governments.
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Under this
grant, a specialized interdisciplinary training program in solid waste
technology was begun at the master's-degree level. The program is
administered by an interdisciplinary committee, principally from the
School of Civil Engineering (Sanitary) and the School of Industrial
Engineering. The program is oriented toward the education of engineers
in the unit processes utilized in disposal, systems analysis, and the
optimization of collection systems, as well as the economic and
administrative aspects of solid wastes management. Students take a core
curriculum in solid wastes technology and related disciplines, and attend
seminars and special workshops. Major emphasis is on civil, sanitary,
industrial, chemical, and mechanical engineering.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This grant supports
an expanded teaching program in solid wastes at the master's level.
It is an interdisciplinary approach developed around the Civil Engineering
Department and involving related fields such as environmental health,
urban and regional planning, and public administration. The
curriculum emphasizes the environmental engineering aspects of the
solid waste management problem. Current courses in the Civil Engineering
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Department serve as a core of the curriculum for the solid wastes
program. The program is designed to train personnel in presenting
knowledge more effectively about the solid waste problem and to
develop new knowledge and methods in this field.
University of Texas, Austin, Texas. This grant was designed to
initiate an instructional and research program in the disposal aspect
of solid wastes at the master's level. Training is offered as a
specialty within the existing environmental health engineering
program, in cooperation with the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Objectives include the training of graduate students, the development
of a competent health-related teaching and research training program,
and the opportunity for both faculty and students to study new
approaches to the disposal of solid wastes. Students specializing in
solid waste management take specific courses amounting to at least
half the hours required for the master's degree. Their training is
directed toward solving problems of municipal refuse disposal. Research
efforts are directed toward solid waste disposal problems.
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Support of this program
is planned to begin master's-level training that emphasizes solid wastes
in a newly formed Department of Environmental Engineering. The program
provides training of personnel for design and operation of solid waste
disposal facilities and training of research personnel for the development
of basic data needed to design effective waste disposal systems. Students
specializing in solid wastes take specific courses amounting to about
half the hours required for the master's degree. As the program
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develops, a systems analysis approach will be included. An
interdisciplinary, all-university committee coordinates research and
training in solid waste management. Initially this program included
studies in chemical and environmental engineering, and aspects of
botany and soiIs.
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia. Support
of this program is designed to expand master's level teaching that
emphasizes solid waste management. To enlarge this program, research
in broad areas on the economic, and engineering aspects of municipal
refuse handling, land reclamation, and related special problems is
encouraged.67
Students specializing in solid waste management take specific
core courses amounting to at least half the hours required for the
master's degree. Qualified nonengineering graduates may enter the
environmental engineering program on an open enrollment plan.
The solid waste management training program is mutually supporting with
graduate programs in air pollution control engineering and water supply
and waste treatment. This interrelationship provides the student with
the opportunity to participate in an active, broad-scope environmental
engineering program. The graduate solid waste management education and
research at West Virginia University has an interdisciplinary approach:
specialists in sanitary engineering and preventative medicine exchange
67MacQueen, A. A., Jr., and R. Zaltzman. Regulation of solid wastes
by public law in West Virginia. [Cincinnati], U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, 1970. 29 p. [Restricted distribution.]
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lectures, the Bacteriology and Civil Engineering Departments administer
a joint research project on sanitary landfills, and the Chemistry and
Sanitary Engineering Departments contribute to a joint laboratory effort.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. This program is
designed to provide training in supervision, planning, and administration
of solid waste disposal facilities, at the master's level. Emphasis
on solid waste includes consideration of collection, transportation
systems, and disposal. The emphasis is directed to courses enabling
a broad understanding of the management of solid waste and its relation
to health problems. The New York State Department of Health is
cooperating with the Rensselaer Institute faculty.
The program, originating in the Division of Bio-Environmental
Engineering, includes engineering, scientific, and economic aspects. It
is strongly supported by an interdisciplinary committee consisting of
the departments of biology, chemistry, science, and engineering.
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Support of this program
is designed to expand master's level and to initiate doctoral level
training, emphasizing solid wastes. The program is within the environmental
health engineering and environmental health sciences curriculum. Its
objective is to educate young engineers in the techniques of solving
practical problems of solid wastes through research. The interdisciplinary
approach is obtained through the participation of the mechanical,
industrial, and chemical engineering departments and other fields such
as political science, business administration, and economics.
The master's-level graduates are trained for effective careers
in State health departments, Federal agencies, engineering companies,
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and industrial organizations. The doctoral graduates are oriented
towards an academic career involving teaching and research in solid
waste problems. Both the MS- and PhD-level programs emphasize research
as a learning experience.
ACTIVITIES IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, 1966-1970 (cont'd.)
Information Activities
Before the December 1968 reorganization of the Solid Wastes
Program, activities concerned with the preparation and dissemination of
information were housed organizationally within various components of
the program. Upon the reorganization of the program into the Bureau of
Solid Waste Management, certain of those activities that could
appropriately be centralized were regrouped to form a new unit, the Office
of Information, composed of three basic segments: the Publishing Operations
Office, the Public Information Office, and the Solid Waste Information
Retrieval System (SWIRS).
Publishing Operations Office. Bureau manuscripts are published as
government pamphlets, brochures, and books, or as articles appearing in
professional, scientific, and technical journals.68 Bureau manuscripts
report and interpret a variety of technical subjects designed for sevenor
varying combinations of the seven--different audiences on several continents,
These audiences may be mainly characterized as professional personnel
68Bayless, T. B., comp. Publications of the Federal solid waste
management program, 1951-1970. Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, (in press.)
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working in the engineering, physical, social, or management sciences, those
working in solid waste management, those working in local or State
government, and the general public. Bureau publications must appeal
in style, conform to the conventions and preferences of the various
audiences, and communicate purposefully and with technical accuracy
to each intended audience within the scope of established Bureau
policy and goals,69
The function of the Publishing Operations Office is to process through
editing, revision, clearance, printing, and distribution all manuscripts
reporting on work of the Bureau, authored by members, contractors, or
grantees of the Bureau. This results in printed publications that
carefully and accurately represent the varied efforts of the Bureau in
carrying out the intent of the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The Publishing
Operations Office actively encourages and develops authorship of a wide
spectrum of publications, initiating manuscripts when necessary. In
addition to editing and publishing the work of the Bureau, the Publishing
operation distributes these publications on various mailing keys and sends
out single issues on request. From Fiscal Year 1969 through Fiscal Year 1970,
the Bureau had processed more than A50 manuscripts and had published more
than 200 titles in publications varying from a few to several hundred pages
in length. During the same period, more than 289,627 copies of solid
waste management publications were distributed.70
69Curry, M. G., A. Hamilton, and C. S. Lawson. Mechanics of
style; a guide for Bureau of Solid Waste Management authors, secretaries,
and contractors. [Cincinnati], U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare, 1969. 26 p.
70Bayless, T. B., E. H. Cox, M. S. Hackett, and B. A. Johnson.
Solid waste management: a list of available literature. [Cincinnati],
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Sept. 1970. 15 p.
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Public Information Office. The principal responsibilities of this
office are as follows:
1. Responding to public inquiries received by letters
and by personal visits of individuals or groups.
These requests come from such varied sources as the
lay public, students, and professionals in technical
fields, and political officials.
2. Preparing and disseminating news releases to
report all significant activities of the Bureau,
including work performed by means of grants,
contracts, and in-house research.
3. Preparing speeches for the Bureau Director
and other senior staff members.
k. Preparing in whole or in part, magazine articles
on Bureau activities, or supplying information and
cooperating with free-lance writers and media
representatives in the production of articles.
5. Handling publicity arrangements for Bureau-sponsored
conferences, meetings, and other special projects.
Solid Waste information Retrieval System
SWIRS is a keyword-oriented system whose basic objective is to
collect, abstract, index, and catalog, the world-wide solid waste
literature for Bureau staff, contractors, grantees, solid waste researchers,
and Congressional offices, with limited service to the general public.
Specific activities include:
1. Reviewing the open technical and scientific
literature for material relevant to solid waste
management and related fields.
2. Securing published patents related to solid
waste technology, advising the Bureau staff of
their existence, and preparing a patent abstract
bulletin.71
71Connolly, J. A., ed. Abstracts; selected patents on refuse handling
facilities for buildings. Public Health Service Publication No. 1793.
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968. [320 p.]
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3. Continuing the annual annotated bibliography series
covering the solid waste field.72"79
4. Providing routine literature searches, reference
abstracting, and bibliographic citations upon
request.
5. Preparing a monthly bulletin of recent accessions
to the retrieval system, which is distributed by
the Bureau to the public.80
6. Maintaining comprehensive Bureau grant and
contract files as separate system.
72Van Derwerker, R. J., and L. Weaver. Refuse collection and
disposal; a bibliography, 1941-1950. Public Health Service Publication
No. 91. Washington, Federal Security Agency, 1951. 90 p.
73Division of Sanitary Engineering Services. Refuse collection and
disposal; a bibliography, 1951-1953- Public Health Service Publication
No. 402. Washington, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare, 1953. 39 p. Suppl. A.
71fWeaver, L. Refuse collection and disposal; an annotated
bibliography, 1954-1955- Public Health Service Publication No. 91.
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956. 48 p. Suppl. B.
75Williams, E. R. Refuse collection and disposal; an annotated
bibliography, 1956-1957- Public Health Service Publication No. 91.
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1958. 48 p. Suppl. C.
76Williams, E. R. , and R. J. Black. Refuse collection and
disposal; an annotated bibliography, 1958-1959. Public Health Service
Publication No. 91. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1961.
73 p. Suppl . D.
77Black, R. J., and P. L. Davis. Refuse collection and disposal; an
annotated bibliography, 1960-1961. Public Health Service Publication
No. 91- Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963- Revised
1966. 69 p. Suppl . E.
78Black, R. J., J. B. Wheeler, and W. G. Henderson. Refuse
collection and disposal; an annotated bibliography, 1962-1963- Public
Health Service Publication No. 91- Washington, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1966. 134 p. Suppl. F.
79 [The Franklin Institute.] Solid waste management; abstracts
from the literature, 1964. Washington, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1971- (in press.)
80[The Franklin Institute.] Solid Waste Information Retrieval
System Accession Bulletin. [Monthly serial.] Washington, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 1970.
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7. Screening acquisitions of approximately
2,000 clippings per month from a news clipping
service for current interest to Bureau personnel
as well as supplementing technical information
requests on the subject matter.
8. Maintaining a library with holdings of
approximately 1,200 documents, 95 percent of which
are in the field of solid waste management.
9. Maintaining a usable-quote file and an
equipment file on solid waste management equipment.
To fulfill the first-mentioned part of its mission, SWIRS developed
a contract for a literature search and abstracting service, which was
awarded to the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennyslvania in
June 1967. The contract called for the (then) Solid Wastes Program to
receive 300 abstracts and copies of articles per month starting
July 5, 1967. By July 1, 1968, 2,600 abstracts and documents were on
file in the systems. SWIRS staff members continued monitoring the
contract activity and abstracting much of the nonperiodical literature.
As of July 1, 1969, there were ^*,250 abstracts and documents in the
system, representing both in-house and contract efforts, and by
July 1, 1970, there were 6,950 holdings. Tentative plans were underway
at the latter date to computerize the search aspect that will include
insertion of all keywords and accession numbers into a computer bank.
This will reduce the lag time in responding to requests. Tentative
plans are to open SWIRS to the public approximately six months after the
total conversion to the computerized base. Tentative user projections
are for approximately 1,100 to 1,200 requests to be processed through
the system in the first year of operation. This will, of course,
increase as the solid waste information retrieval system becomes known
in the field of solid waste management.
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IV
FUTURE NEEDS AND PROGRAMS
In view of impending changes, this report may well conclude any
description of progress in solid waste activities within the U.S. Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare. On July 9, 1970, the President sent
to Congress a proposal that, if accepted, will place the Bureau of Solid
Waste Management in a newly established organization, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
Five months earlier, in the President's message to Congress on the
environment, he announced his intention to recommend needed reforms,
which would involve major reassignments of responsibilities among
Departments. In speaking of the need to improve environmental quality,
he said, "The tasks that need doing require money, resolve and
ingenuity--and they are too big to be done by government alone. They
call for fundamentally new philosophies of land, air, and water use, for
stricter regulation, for expanded government action, for greater citizen
involvement, and for new programs to ensure that government, industry, and
individuals all are called on to do their share of the job and to pay
their share of the cost."
According to the later White House statement, "The mission of the
EPA will be to organize the fight against environmental pollution on an
integrated basis which acknowledges the critical relationships between
pollutants, forms of pollution, and control techniques .... (The present)
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fragmentation of effort has resulted in confusion and overlap, some delay
in the recognition of new problems, and the continuance of inefficient
management techniques. It has effectively inhibited any comprehensive
examination of the total effects of pollutants by man, plants, animals
and ecological systems."
Although much has been accomplished since passage of the 1965
Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Bureau has long felt the severe constraints
imposed by budget and personnel limitations, as it has been in the position
of competing for limited resources with widely disparate programs of the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In an effort to make the
most of inadequate resources, the Bureau has had to allocate much of its
time and money to "putting out fires"--to the refinement of proven
techniques with immediate application--and has devoted less time than it
would wish to the exploration of new or undeveloped concepts, such as
recycling and reuse, which are the key to ultimate solution of solid
waste management problems. The Bureau anticipates that placement in the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will provide a stability that has been
lacking heretofore, and that with increased visibility, the tools it
requires to do the most effective job will necessarily follow.
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