Designs for resource recovery parks (RRPs) are evolving. As new technologies and approaches appear, they build on tested ideas of how to manage discarded resources for best use end-markets. This has been the case in the development of our resource recovery park in Crescent City.
This particular story begins in the early 1990s following a decision to close the local landfill in the region of Del Norte County, Northern California. The problematic, decades-old unlined dump was east of the county’s pristine beaches and also close to huge groves of ancient redwood trees, both major tourist attractions. By the time the decision was taken to shut down the landfill, it was significantly affecting the local environment, notably as groundwater moved leachate toward the sea just below the surface.
The state cracked down on unlined landfills, and Del Norte County’s had to close. But, something new had to take its place. So, at the instigation of local government officers, some of California’s most experienced recyclers were brought together.
After a week in Crescent City touring existing facilities, looking for sites and business partners, presenting ideas to decision makers and the public and brainstorming far into the night, a plan emerged to replace the landfill with a comprehensive discard management facility operated by a new authority dedicated to zero waste.
This approach made a great deal of economic as well as environmental sense because the closest landfill after the county’s shut down would be near Grant’s Pass, Oregon, three hours away by highway. With no local permitted space to fill, wasting was not cheap anymore. Disposal economics had tilted suddenly in favour of materials recovery.
Besides being cheaper to operate, reuse, recycling and composting could supply steady flows of refined resources to diversify an economy where logging and fishing were declining. Several local businesses expressed interest in being part of the disposal service plan.
It is an underpinning feature of RRPs that materials recovery enterprises also like to cluster. Since they compete with wasting for resources, they also like to be near waste transfer facilities, often in industrial zones with good access to transport. Furthermore, as more niche recovery enterprises convert different parts of the discard supply to tradable resources, the amount being wasted declines.
So, with a broad base of local support, the county created a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to own and manage the facility, as well as oversee its construction. A contract for design was let and when this was complete enough to satisfy everyone, the new JPA hired an engineering firm to draw up working plans for constructing the facility. In turn, that engineering firm hired some of the original group of experienced recyclers with demonstrated skills in facility design, to tell them what the hardscape (or, manmade features in landscape architechture) should include and how it was to be laid out: buildings; paving; traffic movement; landscaping; and unloading areas.
Finding a site took several years. The first site chosen was close to Crescent City and a smallish seven acres, but it was also next to a local worker-owned business that could be a market for some of its output. Initial designs were drawn up, but the site had toxics problems, so the staff reluctantly abandoned the design and moved on.
The second potential site was bigger, but it had people living and working on it in structures that were clumsily placed from the perspective of an ideal site design. A simple plan was drawn up, but the owners raised the price past what the staff were willing or able to pay, so this one was abandoned as well. The third site was farthest from town, but still close to the worker-owned business and still on the main arterial road. Staff decided to go for it, and the designers did another iteration, this time working in an onsite nature preserve. The site shape lent itself to the main functions – reuse, recycling and composting – which made for a satisfying design overall. On its third try, the project team got the best of the three sites, so the wait was worth it, although the deadline for a solution was by now imminent.
The result is a user-friendly RRP on 14 acres near Crescent City. To get there, customers leave the main arterial road, drive past a landscaped natural area and arrive at the RRP’s twin weighbridges. These are sited at the gate, which is also equipped with computers, video, credit card terminals, a backup generator and the like. Having scales both coming and going allows staff from the JPA to weigh vehicles in and out, and to charge customers disposal service fees precisely according to what they are delivering, either for recycling or for wasting. Disposal service rates are material-specific and variable. Unsurprisingly, recycling is generally the cheapest option.
Wasting costs the most, and crucially this is located at the end of the line. Customers can weigh in and weigh out multiple times if they have segregated different materials having different disposal rates. The disposal rates are published on a large sign near the entrance.
The system is safe and pleasant to use. People unloading plant debris have an area dedicated to handling that specific material, concrete and asphalt go to a different place and so on. Some materials are grouped because collecting them for markets uses similar equipment. Currently, there are 12 master commodity categories provided for, which include: reusable goods; plant debris; ceramics; soils; metals;
glass; textiles; putrescibles; polymers; chemicals; wood; and paper. We consider that if all 12 material types are collected fully, be that either for recycling, reuse or composting, the result should be zero waste to landfill.
The unloading protocol embodies the hallowed and, at the same time, practical recycling principle of ‘highest and best use’. In other words, the most valuable things – reusable goods – get piled on top and come off first in the unloading sequence. This process, which we call ‘load stratification’, can work very well if it is correctly managed at the receiving end. What is required is mutual trust as well as cooperation between suppliers and receivers. Reuse businesses like Urban Ore, of which we are a part, succeed in part by providing extra services like assisted unloading and cash for certain discard streams. The result can be a powerful demand-pull effect that provides for growth because it increases supply.
All this does not mean users cannot bring commingled waste; they just have to pay more. Over time, these price signals work up the supply chain to the source, which is where clean recycling must begin. Haulers who prepare loads correctly are rewarded by paying less for disposal by recycling than for disposal by wasting. Even recent immigrants who become trash haulers learn these adjustments quickly, because doing recycling well means more cash jingling in the pocket while driving to the next hauling job.
Two more parts are yet to be built: a reuse facility featuring retail sales and active salvaging and a full-service recycling facility equipped to handle kerbside collection, dropoff and buyback functions.
However, the progress does not stop there. The JPA is now also actively pursuing extended producer responsibility through its membership in a statewide organisation, the California Product Stewardship Council, which promotes and lobbies for manufacturers’ takeback policies. One feature designed into the site that is already up and running is a handling and storage system for regulated materials such as chemicals – paints, fuels, oils, solvents, pesticides, pharmaceuticals – and other regulated items like batteries, cathode ray tubes, electronics, fluorescent light fixtures and bulbs, as well as appliances.
Another innovative feature is a mattress collection and storage function that allows used mattresses to be collected onsite and exported to markets in Oregon. There are many resort towns north and south of Crescent City with hundreds of motels and hotels, so there may be a fairly large supply of mattresses going through this recovery system from the local hospitality industry.
We believe that the Del Norte RRP’s schedule of fees is one of the most complex and complete anywhere. About three dozen discard commodity categories are recognised, each with its own price and unloading protocol.
Overall, the Urban Ore design
team feels that this is perhaps the fullest expression of the ideas we have been fortunate to try in more than two dozen other locales around the world.