There has been a proliferation of software for management of solid wastes. MSW Management looks at some of them and discovers where they are used.

By Paul Hull

Both collection and disposal are vital operations (and costs) of solid waste management. Picking up wastes from residential, commercial, and industrial sites involves thousands of municipalities and has become a major private industry. In recent years, computers have played an increasingly visible part in the management system, and there are dozens of software programs available to help collectors be more efficient and cost-effective and to allow landfill operations to make the best use of space, equipment, and time. But who is using these programs? Based on what other professionals in our industry report, is it probable that software could benefit your management system?

Initially we asked people in one of the least populous states, Montana, because they could seemingly represent the thousands of small communities who have solid waste management challenges and, usually, less money with which to solve them. "I couldn’t afford the whole system," states Craig Kurtz, who collects solid waste for the Forest Park community of not much more than 1,000 people. "With costs for using the local landfill rising steadily, I must know how much weight I am picking up and how much to charge my customers. I have a system in the cab to tell me the weight of a collection, but I did not purchase the other half of the system, which automatically transfers that information to my computer in the office. For my size of business, I could not justify the extra expense yet." Kurtz manually enters the information for recording and billing.

Kevin Dorwart works in the Public Works Department of the adjacent city, Glendive, with some 5,000 people. It has its own sanitary landfill, with an anticipated life of 200 more years, and charges nonresident users of the landfill a fee per pound (with special fees for such items as refrigerators that require expert dismantling). Small, neighboring communities, like Terry, just 38 mi. down the interstate, also use the Glendive sanitary landfill. "We have a program to ensure correct weights and charges," explains Dorwart, "but we do not have a sophisticated computer system linked automatically to our office. It would be difficult to justify the expense to our community." He also points out that most residents of his community have no idea of the scope and cost of the operations at their city landfill. For example, where they used to cover the day’s delivered waste every evening, they now have a full-time employee in charge of that, and they bring in special work groups to handle temporary problems such as those caused when a tornado passes through. Sometimes this small city’s landfill serves as many as 100 customers in a day, and sometimes there may be only one on a day when the temperature is well below zero. In the Sidney community some 50 mi. away, with a population around 10,000, there is no charge for disposal at the landfill, but members of the community are assessed an annual fee. As with all programs where an objective cost assessment is made to the public, there are those who feel they are supporting the bad habits of others. Would a computerized program make the assessment more equitable? Again, the determination seems to depend on the number of people involved and the cost of local disposal. Conversations with people nationwide have demonstrated that the problems and solutions of one community are similar to those of a parallel community in another state. As our readers know, solid waste management is a national challenge and, even if there are problems peculiar to certain geographic or geological areas, an awareness of what is happening elsewhere should help in planning and purchasing decisions.

Lynchburg, VA, serves some 70,000 residents and also has about 200 commercial or industrial customers at the landfill. The cost of disposal is basically about 20% higher (at $48/ton) than at the landfills mentioned above. "We have been using Paradigm software for about two and a half years now," notes Heather Villafranca, financial coordinator for the Waste Management Division there. "The software is essentially a weight-capturing program, and it interfaces very well with our accounting system. It is a friendly system and has proved its merit in billing our customers correctly. Residents are allowed to make a free trip once a month to the landfill and can dispose of up to 1,000 pounds for that trip. The system monitors that, too." At the Trans-Jordan Cities Landfill in Utah, which serves 8,000 to 15,000 customers per month depending on the season, the Paradigm software was chosen after evaluation of 15 different programs. This is a standard system with three scales controlled by two WeighStation computers, optionally configured for a single landfill. "Among the customizations are an automated processing scale with outdoor bar code scanner, an outdoor receipt printer, a customized accounting interface and custom reporting," explains Sandy Kelsey, the landfill’s scale-house supervisor for accounts receivable. "We love the system, not least of all because the support is so good. For our month-to-month operations, we have a prepay system and this software gives us real-time balances, which is a truly beneficial feature." current charges at this site are $22/ton and $11/ton for greenwaste. Some communities do not charge for greenwaste taken by the user to the landfill for composting.

The potential user’s personal attitude to computerized assistance seems to be a significant factor in the success or failure of a system in solid waste management. The two ladies quoted above were both enthusiastic about the capabilities of their programs and were quite comfortable working with them. It is clear that they understand the programs and, most importantly, what they are trying to achieve. They reported, too, that the program provider has been helpful before and after the sale. "Software manufacturers should realize that we are consumers," asserts more than one municipal user. "We are just as concerned about good service and support for our public waste management programs as we are for our personal cars and property."

Most businesses use computers today and, as younger people accustomed to software programs from the earliest grades in school move into management, there will be no reduction in their use. But each industry makes its own demands. "Few solid waste managers are able to function today in a world of taxes, reports, bulk mail requirements, and transient customers without the aid of a computerized operating system," comments Alan Erdossy, for Trash Flow, a division of IVY Computer. "The range of available products is staggering. Many start by purchasing a basic accounting package, hoping that it will handle their basic needs. Unfortunately, software designers of ‘off-the-shelf’ programs seldom seem to consider the needs of a service-based industry, because most of their millions of users are small businesses created to sell products rather than services." Erdossy points out that the software for solid waste management has to address the particular needs of the users. It should be an integrated system that allows easy access to special and repeating charges, prepares bills that take advantage of permitted mail options, tracks containers, and manages collection routes. "A software package must be able to grow and expand with the operation," adds Erdossy. "The waste has to go somewhere, so a system designed for a hauler should also be able to manage a landfill, transfer station, or recycling center as well."

Trash Flow, started a decade ago as software to help waste haulers, is modular, and users buy components as they need them. Last year, the company introduced a landfill module to help speed up tip ticket processing at scales and yards. An Enterprise edition allowing a main office to manage satellite operations is scheduled for release very soon. The popularity of roll-off containers caused the rewriting of Trash Flow’s container tracking and routing modules (to improve management of on-call customers).

"We have seen rapid progress in the last two years," observes James Manley of Information Systems Inc. (ISI), which has been providing programs to the solid wastes industry for 20 years. "Seventy-five percent of our business is with municipalities but we have noticed that more new business seems to be coming from the private sector, companies like BFI and Waste Management. There has been a move toward privatization and that may be because not all municipalities have enough money or people to handle new regulations and permitting." Some of ISI’s customers have small operations, and their perception is that a facility that requires 50-100 or more tickets per day can benefit from computerized programs. The alternative to using software to handle a growing number of daily transactions may be the hiring of another worker. Among ISI’s products are the Weighmaster System and the Soil Master System, programs that allow users to process transactions at a scale-house facility, record those transactions, and transmit them to another site for billing or reporting purposes. The user at the scale house sees menus that prompt for answers on information requests and can review data that summarize the volume of transactions by a variety of categories. A rough cost estimate is that a scale-house system will be in the $2,500 range and that an office system will run about $1,000 more. "This industry is changing rapidly," adds Manley. "The accepted norm is that a customer should buy as much as he can afford. Our Scale Interfacing provides the current list of scales with which ISI can interface. That list is changing constantly because new indicators from different manufacturers are produced all the time."

"We think everyone in the industry should have a copy of SWPlan, our solid waste management planning software," cheerfully asserts Mark Banwart, who represents the producer. "We believe that localities that are beginning to address waste management as a system, and do not have a preconceived approach in mind, can benefit greatly from the scenario development format that is laid out in SWPlan." What are the capabilities of a program like SWPlan? It will design an integrated solid waste management system or evaluate an existing one and simulate different management scenarios of the user’s own design. The program can compare different waste generation amounts (from those of a single building to those for the entire county) and determine the best integrated system according to technology, efficiency, costs, and performance. "A thoughtful and responsible integrated waste management system will attain its good, community-conscious goals," adds Banwart. What such programs do is help users understand their situations with data based on relevant considerations. For solid waste management, the program will: define population, employment, and density of the community; determine the composition of the solid wastes and the amounts; define the sources of waste and the types and costs of collection; and define the distances involved in transportation of the wastes. SWPlan, for example, will also identify revenues and costs and present the results in reports that are easy to read and evaluate. Most software producers understand that there are many computer program users who do not understand the computers’ operational jargon but do understand the subjects programs address. Today’s software is designed for use by people who know their own businesses, not necessarily for people who know computers. For those who are nervous about being involved with computers and software, it should be a consolation that understanding of solid waste management is infinitely more important when interpreting results than knowledge of the software’s internal workings. At the very least, programs collect and record data about your community’s solid wastes so that it can be accessed much faster and it is more accurate than anything that can be done with pen and paper or (and, it seems, this still happens) with information stored in somebody’s head.

The variables in a community’s solid waste management program can reflect the methods of collection and treatment, the types of wastes involved, the costs of different phases of the operation, and possible sources of revenue to offset the public costs. CPM Inc., which produces Recycling Insights and SWPlan, has published this list of variables addressed in their programs.

Variables for waste management approaches and methods: Sources, waste reduction, yardwaste composting, recyclables, material processing (MRF), waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration, ash disposal, refuse-derived fuel (RDF), composting of MSW, landfills (with or without transfer stations).

Variables for recyclables and commodities: Newsprint and newspaper (ONP), telephone books, magazines, corrugated cardboard (OCC), office-generated papers, mixed paper, aluminum cans, other aluminum, bimetal cans, ferrous materials, nonferrous materials, glass, glass containers, plastic containers, plastic film, yardwaste (greenwaste), foodwastes, wood, textiles, and rubber.

Variables for transportation and collection of wastes: Transfer stations, direct haul, residential collection, open residential collection, municipal residential collection, municipal contracted residential collection, zoned residential collection, commercial collection, recyclables collection, commercial onsite collection, drop-off recycling containers.

Variables for costs of a solid waste management system: Collection costs, transportation costs, operating costs, total facility costs, debt service, gross costs, net costs.

Variables for sources of revenue: Tipping fees, RDF, steam sales, electricity sales, MSW compost sales, yardwaste compost sales, sales of recyclables and commodities, miscellaneous fees.

From this information, SWPlan generates five reports for its users, comprising 50 bar charts, eight pie charts, 18 tables and five subreports. What does such a program cost? Less than $500.

The first aspect of solid waste management addressed seems to be the weight of the collected materials (because it affects the obvious costs of collection vehicles, sanitary landfills, and the level of billing required to maintain operations), so it is not surprising that there are several programs available to public and private haulers to help them with the weighing. PC Scale customizes software and Scale Systems offers several services from analytical balances to large truck scales. The PC Scale system, in use throughout North America, is a scalable client/server-based program which can be expanded from a single PC to a large-scale operation involving an NT/Novell SQL environment. It is a Windows-based system and reports its data according to date, customer, truck, and commodity. There are special packages for applications at landfills, recycling centers, transfer operations, and scrap handling. The WinVRS system comes from Cardinal Scale Manufacturing, experienced in all fields of truck weighing, and is designed for easy keyboard operation. The user can view accounts, materials, and other pertinent data at any time, and there is a ticket formatter to customize printing of preprinted tickets for customers. With Cardinal’s system, drivers can weigh in and out without a scale operator present, thanks to bar-coded badges. For security—an important facet of computerized systems for all those involved—there is password protection with multiple levels of operator access. WAM Software offers a standard package for solid waste haulers and proudly states that about 70% of their software upgrades and modifications have originated with users of the software. They provide a multi-user feature, meaning that two people can be reading the same information at the same time. In the business of serving the waste industry for 15 years, WAM now offers programs specifically for landfills, compost facilities, transfer stations, recyclers, and MRFs.

Several software producers, aware that both government regulations and the sizes of communities are subject to constant change, emphasize the point that modular programs might be the best route for a municipality to start its computerized management system. PC Automation Inc. has developed the solid waste management information system known as Geoware, available in modules for public and private customers. Geoware is another system that cooperates with those whose circumstances make an unattended scale house a practical consideration. The Automated Vehicle Identification (AVID) Module works with, or instead of, the normal attended vehicle processing mode. The Geoware Vehicle Processing Module comprises several programs to automate the daily processing of transactions at transfer stations, landfills, MRFs, and related solid waste management operations. This module works with the vehicle weighing system and other Geoware modules, such as Traffic Control, Cash Management, and Video Security. It communicates and exchanges information with the Administration Module, which works with daily data generated in processing and can update system information in real time.

There is, of course, help available from consulting engineers and groups such as the Tellus Institute, supported by public and private funding. Tellus has produced WastePlan, described as a user-friendly computer application designed to facilitate integrated solid waste planning and analysis. In this system the user runs the management system on his or her computer screen. The first step is to describe an area’s waste generation (using any number of separate sectors and types of waste). The user then sends the generated wastes into sequences of source reduction, recycling, composting, and garbage collection. Finally, the collection of wastes to existing (or planned) facilities is performed; those facilities could be landfills, transfer stations, incinerators, or composting or recycling facilities. WastePlan calculates the results automatically to simulate an existing or planned solid waste system. The concept behind this program is that it does not make your choices for you but demonstrates the implications of your own knowledge and assumptions, so that your real choice is more informed and comprehensive.

"One of the biggest issues I see in this field is that many companies purchase and install software without an implementation plan," comments Robert Kitchen, manager of consulting services at DP Solutions. "They buy a computer program without researching options or comparing the program with others available. They also expect to install the program and then retrieve the information they need next week." Kitchen advises that potential users determine the resources needed and set up a plan to get what they want from the program. Implementation of a new business program will present a cultural change within an organization, and managing that change may be the most difficult part. New procedures and policies will have to be instituted and training given. The network administrators will have their workload increased initially and additional help with data entry will probably be required. "Many managers want instant results and proven payback on their investment," adds Kitchen. "You will, however, typically have to go through at least one business cycle before data collected are valuable. My recommendation is to do the research and planning up front and make sure the human and financial resources are available when required." Kitchen’s sentiments were echoed by many others. "Do your homework diligently" is what experienced users and vendors are saying. When it is determined that a computer software program might help your solid waste management operations, proceed as you would when contemplating purchase of any other major item. Ask other communities and organizations what they have used and how successful it has been. Ask software providers for explanations of everything that would be involved for your specific application. When you have found satisfactory answers to your questions, choose your software and commit to your success.

MSW
January /February 2000