Collection Methods

North Dakota HHW's:
Diverse solutions and accomplishing a common goal in a rural environment.

Each type of collection has a unique set of characteristics. Therefore, careful consideration should be given to the type of collection program you choose to operate. Without planning and clearly defined goals, reachable through a well-organized approach, your HHW program may not meet all the needs of your community.

Single Day HHW Collection
All HHW collection programs trace their goals to the single day HHW collection event and this type of collection continues to be a mainstay event. Each year more and more municipalities determine to provide this service for their communities. The single day collection event provides its own set of advantages. Advantages include specific program date (Earth Day is a good example), collection time can be flexible, items collected can be broad or narrow, depending upon funding, permitting is straight forward, media coverage is typically good, site collection is flexible (fairgrounds, civic center parking lots, etc.), costs are manageable. Of course there are few limitations to single day HHW collections as well. Typically, little to no education program accompanies the first single day HHW event, pre-planning can be very time-consuming, a heavy reliance must be placed on your scheduled contractors and everything must come together at the right time, site set-up and break-down makes for a long collection day, to name a few. Also, the ability to utilize creative avenues of site and waste management is limited.

The measuring stick for a single day HHW collections is quite simple. If the program attracts 1% of the households in your target area and costs are maintained between $75 and $90 per household, success has been attained.

Milk-run HHW collections
This variation on the single day event is unique and effective. A milk-run collection works as follows: a schedule of collection locations, dates and times are posted throughout the county well in advance of the collection event, your contractor mobilizes a service vehicle and a small number of trained staff members, a small operations area is established at each pre-determined collection site, HHW is collected from the participants. Advantages include optimum participation in rural areas where an established network of solid waste convenience centers already exists, the collection can be accomplished with a small number of personnel and can be operated with limited set-up and break-down, full county coverage. This collection program has limitations as well: while pre-planning is not as extensive as the single day event, the planning and advertising must be completed and implemented far in advance of the collection, media coverage can be less eye-catching than the single-day single-site collection, each collection location will be limited to a specific day and timeframe.

Door to Door (Curbside) HHW collections
While this concept of HHW collections is new, it presents a hands-free yet comprehensive HHW collection system that is worth investigating. The Curbside HHW collection program operates as follows: residents can call a toll-free hotline operated by Curbside to schedule a collection. The hotline operator will qualify the caller, determine the types and quantity of accepted material the resident has for collection. A collection date will be scheduled. A kit (capable of holding 75 pounds of HHW) will be provided to each participant prior to collection, a trained service person will collect the kit, examine the contents and correctly package the acceptable HHW material to meet Department of Transportation (DOT) shipping guidelines. Complete reporting will be provided to the municipality (who, what, when, etc.). All of this is provided at a per household costs.

Curbside poses many advantages. In comparison to the single day and Milk-run collections, much of the pre-planning is all but eliminated. No additional county staffing, or added staff responsibilities are required to implement the collections. County emphasis can be placed on education rather than daily operational concerns. Billing to the county is per household. Collection times are citizen convenient. Public education assistance, customer surveys, and performance monitoring is provided. Conditionally-Exempt Small Quantity Generators (CESQGs) are eligible to participate (curbside can bill the CESQG instead of the municipality). Grants are available for qualifying programs. All citizens, including the most under-served are serviced. There are a few limitations to Curbside: containers that are over 5 gallons in size can incur and additional fee and budgeting concerns can arise (i.e. the number of households serviced per year).

The Curbside collection program also proves to be an excellent supplement to an existing permanent HHW collection program by providing services to the elderly and handicapped. Also, the CESQG Curbside program, implemented as described above, can be added to an existing permanent HHW collection at no cost to county solid waste budgets, no additional work for HHW collection managers, yet provides a solution for the ever growing need to manage CESQG wastes without pulling funding away from the HHW collection budget.

Permanent HHW Collection Programs
This type of collection activity provides the most opportunities for the hands-on solid waste staff. Depending upon the level of involvement, auxiliary programs and low costs create a truly unique collection program.

The logistics of the permanent HHW collection site provides set days and times that citizens can dispose of their HHW. This aids in advertising and citizen planning, HHW collections can be managed by city or county personnel, at city or county owned sites. Or, contractor personnel can manage collection activities at city or county owned sites, or, the entire collection can be managed and operated at the contractor's location. The collection site can be a permanent building equipped with sufficient containment and other applicable safety features. Or, a pre-engineered storage building is a cost effective option for a permanent collection program.

Managing the permanent HHW collection site becomes an on-going exercise in creativity that proves to be beneficial. As the collection program develops, trends will develop that prompt alternative, non-traditional approaches to managing costs. For instance, choosing to staff the operation with trained employees proves to be cost effective. Also, volunteer trained labor from local industry, fire department, and LEC can provide an excellent cost savings alternative to the full contractor's staff.

By far, the largest area of cost management falls in the area of waste management. Being safe, environmentally conscious and creative in this area allows for the inspection of various re-use and exchange programs. Many permanent collections operate a latex paint exchange, some offer latex paint to habitat for humanity, other programs actively promote an item re-use program and most all programs are engaged in a local waste re-use/recycling program for other types of HHW. Many industries will provide at no cost varying operating supplies such as DOT approved containers to package materials, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and other safety and operational supplies. While all of these ideas require periods of planning and networking with many industries and agencies, the results will be positively reflected in the end of the year costs for the collection program.

Permanent HHW collection programs are not without their downsides. As expected, the site location and permitting procedures are more extensive than a single day collection event, initial start-up costs can be a hurdle if the pre-planning period is not sufficient. And as detailed above, continuous oversight is necessary.