John Trotti

A couple of years back I used this column to expound on what I felt technology held in store for the movement of waste - from curbsides to transfer stations or MRFs - and from there to the several points of disposition, whether through diversion or disposal. The waste side of the materials equation would someday emulate the highly scheduled, real-time controlled, just-in-time models of efficiency found in the production regime, I proposed, and though I admit to being a little starry-eyed in my vision - and have endured some fairly substantial horse laughs in the process - I hold fast to my belief. In fact, it burns brighter than ever as evidence of cost savings and productivity advances mounts throughout the surface transportation world—and why should anyone be surprised?

For more than 70 years, air transportation has accepted the idea of traffic monitoring and, with some trepidation, control. While a pilot's "big picture"is to traverse some airspace and arrive an appropriate destination rapidly and intact, air traffic controllers view aviators as a bunch of mindless serpents amid a three-dimensional sack of snakes. Their job is to see to it that all those Smilin' Jacks with fangs get along together and hopefully get where they're going with a minimum of delay while allowing for such things as weather, closed runways, out-of-service navigation aids, and (heaven forbid) in-flight emergencies. Grump as much as I want about this “invasion of my privacy, - the truth is that I and those who share my sky are better off for the imposition - not only for the safety the system confers, but because it allows people with a better vantage point to facilitate our progress in ways we might never be aware.

Though obviously less proscriptive, a similar situation is becoming possible on our nation's roads and highways through the magic of communications and GPS, and as you've probably noticed, the marriage is a good one, supplanting the good-old-boy, - That's a big 10-4 buddy, - chatter with meaningful voice communications and silent-but-significant two-way data transfer. The technologies are in place, the systems debugged, the applications refined to the point that they can be tailored to almost any situation, and the cost/benefit matrices honed to the point that buyers are able to assess payback potential without calling 911 for help.

The issue is control, and in truth operators of smaller fleets in less congested areas don't have much need for real-time contact with vehicles plying their routes. Size and complexity are the critical elements. It's where you find yourself pounding your desk and meeting a blank look from staff when you ask, "Where the heck's number Sixty-Two?" and finding out three hours later Sixty-Two has suffered a breakdown or has been tied up in a traffic jam or its driver has taken another leisurely coffee break. That's when it's time to ask yourself whether investing in what is by now off-the-shelf technology isn't a better way to spend your money.

MSW Management Launches an Electronic Supplement

We're continuing in our efforts to combine print and electronic media in ways that you truly find beneficial. As many of you have already found, we opened shop in this effort in the September/October issue by presenting what was essentially an executive summary of a detailed article titled "A Review of Landfill Gas Components," which we then published in full on our Web site in PDF format.

Now we've launched MSW Management's bimonthly Electronic Supplement, designed to provide you with news, calendar events, updates, discussions, feedback, and special features that do not fit the size or format constraints of the print version of the magazine. The supplement allows us to become a clearinghouse for material too lengthy or detailed to handle adequately in print.

We will e-mail the supplement every other month, and we guarantee it to be short and to the point, using one-line teasers to invite you to use hyperlinks to see only those things that interest you. No blinking come-ons, no thinly veiled advertisements, no spam - nothing to clog your in-box or waste your time.

Now comes the hard sell: How do we get you to sign up? I'd really like to be in the position of my boot camp drill instructor and say, "Do it - or else!" but that's not the way it works these days. Instead: "Do it - or else,please!" Type in www.forester.net/mw_register.html on your browser, check out our privacy policy that promises we will not sell you down the river or subject you to spam, and enter your e-mail address. You'll thank me - I promise.

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MSW - November/December 2002