Sifting Wheat from the Trash

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Researchers will be sifting through a lot of trash this fall in an effort to find a way to recover recyclable and compostable multi-family household discards. The results could have significance for environmental sustainability - an increasingly important concern to Northwest Arkansas and the rest of the world moving into the 21st century.

A 10-month solid waste characterization study focusing on recoverable recyclables and food waste generated by apartment complexes, townhouses and other multi-family dwellings will begin in Fayetteville in late September. The study, conducted by Stephan Pollard, a University of Arkansas environmental dynamics doctoral candidate, with oversight by professor Jennie Popp of the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness, is believed to be the only one of its kind ever undertaken in Arkansas.

"It's hoped that the information from this project will facilitate additional future studies and regional waste management decisions," Pollard said.

Currently, few national or local studies have examined the garbage generated by apartment dwellers and townhouse inhabitants or modeled how the recyclable and compostable portion of this garbage might be collected through recycling and composting programs. This problem hits close to home in Northwest Arkansas, where rapid population growth has outpaced traditional waste disposal methods. Benton and Washington counties share one solid waste landfill that officials predict will reach capacity in one to two years should the currently pending expansion permit be denied. Unfavorable geology, greenhouse gas emissions and other problems have made finding a site for a new landfill difficult and have suggested that a landfill may pose a threat to human health and the environment.

To address these pressing issues, Pollard will measure food scraps, recyclables and other solid waste components generated by an apartment complex representing one of the region's largest trash generators - multi-family dwellings.

The residents will be given recycling bags and will sort their recyclables, food scraps and household hazardous waste into different bins provided by the apartment complex management. The City of Fayetteville Solid Waste and Recycling Division will pick up the recyclable materials, and Pollard will monitor the recyclables, compost materials and other waste generated.

By examining what people at the apartment complex recycle, Pollard hopes to help meet critical regional challenges by improving the climate for recovering recyclable commodities and recovering and composting organic materials from the more than 14,700 one- to four-bedroom multiple family dwelling units in Northwest Arkansas.

"The project will generate useful information where none existed before and lay the groundwork for future and potentially larger similar studies. We plan, in part, to examine what people in multi-family residences discard and what volume of recyclables and food scraps might be recoverable given a pilot recovery program," Pollard said.

Information generated by this project will allow researchers to estimate food scraps and recyclable and non-recyclable fractions of solid waste generation by apartment complexes in the region, in turn facilitating the development of local and regional solid waste disposal options and solutions including recycling and composting infrastructure for multi-family apartment complexes and townhouses.

This project will result in a waste characterization system incorporating categories appropriate to a recycling and food scrap collection program. It also will generate a working resource recovery program tailored to smaller apartment complexes. Both the waste characterization and resource recovery pilot can be used to develop informed decisions on how best to go about recyclables and organics recovery from other multi-family dwellings in Northwest Arkansas.

Information gained from the pilot initiative will allow regional solid waste specialists and community planners to make informed, environmentally sound decisions, particularly regarding development of recyclables and organic materials collection in apartment complexes, and where to focus educational campaigns. Additionally, distributed project findings will encourage regional environmental educators and their students to question commonly held beliefs about garbage and to seek alternative, better ways of dealing with waste.

The City of Fayetteville Solid Waste and Recycling Division is a key partner in the project. Funding is provided through the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) Supplemental Environmental Project Program.

The Environmental Dynamics (ENDY) doctoral program's prime focus is the study of complex interactions between natural systems and human activity. It stresses interdisciplinary regional analysis of geophysical, biological, climatic and sociocultural interactions and changes in the southern United States, natural and social impacts of global climatic change, pollution, landscape evolution and degradation, earthquakes and groundwater depletion. It disseminates relevant information about critical environmental hazards such as saltwater intrusion into fresh groundwater, catastrophic floods, drought, the New Madrid earthquake zone, rapid soil erosion, contamination of surface and groundwater and the occurrence of mercury and other industrial heavy metal contamination.