North Carolina

Recycling and Materials Management Section

Wendy Worley, Section Chief

Recycling and Materials Management Section

Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service

NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)

Recycling in North CarolinaA State Update

NC SWANAApril 2018

A Year of Changes… and more changes

Staffing Changes

Legislative Threats

Market Changes

Presentation Overview DEACS – what’s changed, what’s the same

Annual Reports – how public program data can help advance recycling in NC

Update on Recycling in NC

A Brief on Recycling Market Changes

DEACS – Free Tools & Assistance

DEACS – Recycling Program

• Provide technical and financial assistance to ▪ Local governments

▪ Recycling businesses

▪ Waste generators (manufacturers, commercial businesses, etc.)

• Staff Special Focus Areas▪ Organics

▪ State Agencies / Colleges / Universities

▪ Outreach & Education

▪ NC Green Travel

Despite a year of change… Our staff was hard at work

6 Local Government Networking Meetings and Infrastructure Tours

NC Manufacturing Zero Waste Networking event

With CRA & SC Commerce, Recycling Business Connections event

Grant Cycles

Carolina Plastics Recycling Coalition

Annual Local Government Reporting Cycle Data collection & analysis

Anti-contamination Toolkits and participation in regional messaging stakeholder meetings

Technical support on market challenges

Collegiate Recycling Annual Report

Local Government Annual Reporting

• NC § 130A-309.09A establishes that local governments report annually to NC DEQ

• Annual report to include: Info about public education programs on recycling

Amount of solid waste collected and disposed

Amount and types of materials recycled

Costs of solid waste programs and the methods used to finance those services

• Data gathered through annual reporting process is foundational to the work of state recycling program in NC

Local Government Annual Report

• Distributed as a fillable PDF, communities complete electronically and return via email attachment

• Responses imported into SQL databaseData becomes available for

▪ Analysis

▪ State reporting

▪ Technical assistance

• State dataset contains report responses going back to 1999

Recycling Tonnage:

• Asks communities to report by program

• Curbside

• Drop-off

• Other

• Asks communities to report by materials (allows for reporting of “commingled”)

• Form automatically calculates totals (reducing error)

Form Highlights

Quality Control

• Key ingredient to a high-functioning dataset

• Every report reviewed by staff for accuracy and consistency

• Data compared to previous years, outlier responses verified, and corrected accordingly

• Staff review should catch red flag and call local staff to verify

Example of Quality Control:

Town of Stoneville, NC Curbside

Recycling Tonnage

Fiscal YearCurbside Recycling

(Tons)

FY 2011-12 24.25

FY 2012-13 40.91

FY 2013-14 43.24

FY 2014-15 55.56

FY 2015-16 34.86

FY 2016-17 671.34

• Data can be used to evaluate program performance (for communities and state system)

• Supports the discovery and establishment of metrics

• Allows for the measurement of change over time

• Data can be queried for customized analysis

• Powerful tool for technical assistance and to support decision making

• Examples to follow about how data can be put to work supporting community programs

The Importance of a Dataset

Using Data to Help Communities Make Case for MRF Development

• MRF: the chicken and the egg Communities need access to a MRF to have BMP

level recovery system, but need a critical mass of recovered tons to justify investment in a MRF

• State data can be used to help communities make the case for a MRF

• Example: southeastern NC

NC MRFs – in approx. 2014

• Modern MRFs need a critical mass of local tons

(~25,000 TPY)

• MRF operators need confidence that a critical

mass of material exists to justify investment

NC MRFs – in approx. 2014

• Southeastern NC last metropolitan area

without easy access to MRF

• New Hanover County and City of Wilmington

want to lure private MRF operator to help

increase recycling program efficiency and

effectiveness

Proving the Tons are Available

• State data about public recycling program tonnage in adjoining counties compiled and shared with county staff

County (including

municipalities within)

Annual Community

Tonnage, FY 2013-14

New Hanover County 16,227

Bladen County 537

Brunswick County 7,886

Columbus County 324

Pender County 2,543

Total 27,517

• With tonnage data in hand, county staff are able to build confidence among private MRF Operators

Spring 2016: Recycling Works Newsletter

Using Recycling Data to Support Economic Development

• Data about recovered materials can validate business decision making

• Enough material to justify investment?

• Support from a state can demonstrate commitment to recycling businesses

• Case Study: Eggers Group

Wood Tonnage

County

#

Convenient

Centers

ALAMANCE COUNTY 1

ALEXANDER COUNTY 7

ALLEGHANY COUNTY 1

ANSON COUNTY 6

ASHE COUNTY 5

AVERY COUNTY 7

BEAUFORT COUNTY 11

BERTIE COUNTY 5

BLADEN COUNTY 17

BRUNSWICK COUNTY 4

Public Facilities

MaterialDescription Company City

Mixed C&D Processing A-1 Sandrock, Inc .- Greensboro Greensboro

Mobile Recyclers -- Wood Waste

Wood Waste -- Pallets

Mixed C&D Processing AAA Hauling Of NC Fayetteville

Wood Waste -- Pallets

Mixed C&D Processing Abbey Green Winston Salem

Wood Waste -- Pallets

Mixed C&D Processing Advantage Waste Recycling & Disposal, Inc. Mount Holly

Wood Waste -- Boiler Fuel

Mobile Recyclers -- Wood Waste American Property Experts, Inc. Wilmington

Wood Waste -- Boiler Fuel

Wood Waste -- Manufacturing Scrap

Wood Waste -- Mulch

Wood Waste -- Pallets

Wood Waste -- Sawdust and Bark

Wood Waste -- Boiler Fuel Andrews Wood Products, Inc. Lenoir

Wood Waste -- Manufacturing Scrap

Wood Waste -- Sawdust and Bark

Wood Waste -- PalletsBuffaloe Wood Waste Recycling Facility &

LCID LandfillRaleigh

Wood Waste -- Sawdust and Bark

Private Facilities

Fall 2017: Recycling WorksNewsletter

Bringing

770 Jobs to Davidson County!

Planned Investment = $700 million!

Data to Establish & Track Metrics:Curbside Recycling is Still Growing

328 Curbside recycling programs

Three new communities with curbside

– Ocean Isle Beach, Ranlo, Stanfield

45.8% recyclables are collected by curbside recycling programs (excluding yard waste)

Recovered “Traditional” Recyclables

• Markets fluctuate (like the overall economy)

• Until recently recyclable commodity trends have been favorable

• China’s National Sword Policy• Banning imports of mixed paper and mixed 3-7

plastics

• Setting extremely low bale contamination specifications

Recycling Markets & Pricing Update

Fiber / Paper Recycling Pricing

What can communities do?Increase the Good Stuff – Reduce the Bad Stuff

• Improve quality

•Plan for market swings

• Educate & Re-educate the Community• What to recycle?• What NOT to recycle?

•Use DEACS Support

State Recycling Grants AvailableSupports Programs & Markets

• Local Governments

– Away From Home

– Curbside in unincorporated areas

– HHW

– Hub and Spoke

– Food Waste

• Recycling Businesses

– MRF Upgrades

– Food Waste

– Domestic processing of materials affected by China policies (mixed paper and #3-7 mixed plastics)

DEACS Support & Tools

Regional / Common Messaging

Free Outreach Tools “What’s Acceptable

List”

Anti-Contamination Graphics

Anti-Contamination Social Media Toolkit

OutlookIt may be challenging times, but we can get there together.

We want to hear from you -- let us know how we can help your community or your business.

Thank you!

Wendy Worley, Section Chief

Recycling and Materials Management Section

wendy.worley@ncdenr.gov

Phone: 919-707-8136