GBB and FleetRoute™ Assist City of Baltimore with Collection Re-Routing, Generating Significant Savings of Up to $6 Million Per Year
New “One Plus One” Collection Program Selected and Implemented

Using FleetRoute™ route optimization software, GBB helped the City of Baltimore, MD to re-route its residential trash collection system. The route optimization project, which is expected to generate significant labor, fuel, equipment, and maintenance savings, was provided through a contract with the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority (NMWDA). For this project, GBB teamed with technology partner C2Logix to provide the City with a unique combination of solid waste and route optimization expertise.

The City has an estimated population of 630,000 with 190,000 households serviced by the Department of Public Works (DPW) trucks and crews. Before the re-routing project, the DPW collected refuse twice a week from each residence, with approximately 63 trucks operating six days a week for a total of 214 routes.

“In 2009, the GBB FleetRoute™ Service Bureau developed five alternative conceptual route scenarios. Each of these optimized the routes, workdays, and equipment allocation, as well as analyzed cost savings,” said Frank Bernheisel, GBB Vice President. “This in-depth analysis provided the City with the necessary tools to make an informed decision regarding changes in its collection operation and will allow for significant collection cost reductions for the City while improving services to residents with a more efficient operation.”

The project included refining the geocoding of City customers on the GIS maps and geocoding and identification of customers serviced in alleys. In addition, the street centerline data were expanded to add alleys and travel attributes that were not included in the City GIS baseline. City historical service data were used for set-out weights, and field observations were conducted to update the stop time information.

The alternative conceptual route scenarios were provided to NMWDA and the City, and included both weekly and twice-weekly refuse collection. The weekly collection also included recycling collection, referred to as One Plus One by the City. Scenarios included both five-day work weeks and four-day work weeks. The analysis indicated that the change in the collection system could save the City about $6 million a year. The City Council approved the change, selected the One Plus One scenario, and the City began the new collection program on July 13, 2009. The new program provides one trash collection and one recycling collection each week for single-family residences in Baltimore. The GBB Project Team developed the routes that were used in the roll-out of the new One Plus One collection program.

Related Web Links:

>> Press Release
>> FleetRoute Information

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Harvey Gershman Comments on New York Times Article on WTE
NYT: Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags

On April 13, 2010, the New York Times published an article by Elisabeth Rosenthal entitled “Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags,” which confirms what many in the solid waste industry have known for some time:  Municipal solid waste is no longer a nuisance when the technology exists—and is used—to extract energy and raw materials on an industrial scale. 

Harvey Gershman, GBB President, responded to the article with some additional facts and his comments on the current state and future of Waste-To-Energy in the U.S.:

Elisabeth Rosenthal’s article, “Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags,” confirms what many of us in the solid waste industry have known for some time: Municipal solid waste is no longer a nuisance when the technology exists—and is used—to extract energy and raw materials on an industrial scale.

At our company, we have worked on more than 70 waste-to-energy projects, we have seen how today’s waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities in the U. S. (some 89 in number) meet the most stringent environmental standards in the world and serve as an alternative to land disposal and power generation from fossil fuels, preventing the release of tons of harmful nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. As noted by Columbia University’s Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (see article entitled "Waste-to-Energy: Renewable Energy Instead of Greenhouse Gas Emissions"), WTE allows for energy and metals recovery, greenhouse gas reduction estimated conservatively at one ton of CO2 per ton of municipal solid waste processed by WTE rather than landfilled, and—important from the standpoint of sustainable development—land conservation. Further, WTE has a “beautiful friendship” with recycling, as the experience in many communities with WTE demonstrates. Studies show that at the local level, communities that have built WTE plants have an average recycling rate higher than the national average. Yet even with the recycling and WTE that currently exists in the U.S., over half of our waste stream is still buried in landfills.

While Ms. Rosenthal is correct that no new WTE plants have been built in the U. S. in recent years, she overlooked the fact that existing WTE facility expansions have occurred or are underway in Hillsborough County, FL; Lee County, FL; Honolulu, HI; Olmsted County, MN, and Baltimore, MD. New projects are in advanced development for Frederick County, MD; Harford County, MD; Palm Beach County, FL; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In the United States, we need to manage our wastes better, including doing more to reduce the amount of waste generated in the first place and boosting our recycling rate from the 30 percent level. We can expand the types of plastics collected and processed for recycling, we can do a better job of recycling away from home, and we can add food waste to other organics we already compost. We need to work collaboratively to establish national goals, such as recycling at least 50 percent of our waste, say by 2015, and then use the remaining waste for its energy value while establishing economic incentives to encourage the domestic use of both these waste-derived recyclable and energy resources. Failure to act will result in a continuation of fragmented policies, recycling plateaus, and too much waste transported and buried in landfills that get farther away from where the waste is generated in the first place. WTE needs to be in partnership with recycling so together recycling and WTE can help get us much closer to sending “zero” waste to landfills.

Harvey W. Gershman, President
Gershman, Bricker & Bratton, Inc.
Solid Waste Management Consultants

Related Web Links:

>> Harvey Gershman's bio
>> Selected GBB WTE Projects

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