Final Report

2011 Community Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant Proposal N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach Pollution Prevention Pays

Presented By: Mecklenburg County Government Land Use and Environmental Services Agency: Solid Waste

Trey W. Miller

June 7, 2012

2011 Community Waste Reduction and Recycling Report

Mecklenburg County School’s Milk Carton Recycling Program

CONTACT INFORMATION: Main: Trey W. Miller Mecklenburg County Waste Reduction and Recycling Sr. Environmental Specialist Office (704) 336-3777 Fax (704) 336-4314 Trey.Miller@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov Laurette Hall Environmental Manager Mecklenburg County Waste Reduction and Recycling Office (704) 336-8393 Fax (704) 336-4314 Bruce Gledhill, P.E. Director of Solid Waste Mecklenburg County Waste Reduction and Recycling Office (704) 336-3711 Fax (704) 336-4314 ADDRESS: Mecklenburg County Government- Hal Marshal Services Center Waste Reduction and Recycling 700 N. Tryon St. Charlotte, NC 28202

Mecklenburg County School’s Milk Carton Recycling Program

ABSTRACT In the 2009-2010 school year and prior, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System (CMSS) disposed of over 18,000,000 aseptic milk cartons into its waste stream and landfill. Beginning in July 2010, Mecklenburg County implemented its new single stream recycling which now allows all of CMSS to recycle their aseptic packages. Due to its new innovation, Mecklenburg County has partnered with the Carton Council to serve as an East Coast Pilot Program and as a model for other school systems in the nation. The Carton Council is a national organization comprised of a group of packaging companies that seeks to improve the environmental impact of cartons by promoting carton recycling across the country, and by continuously improving the environmental performance of cartons. The funding from this grant is to aid in the recovery, education, and implementation of our new Mecklenburg County Milk Carton Recycling Program. It is our goal, with the help of the 2011 Community Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant, to help educate, monitor, serve as a model school system, and ultimately to recover over 75% of all aseptic milk cartons (23,500,000 cartons). Year end results concluded that approximately 8,000,000 milk and juice cartons were recovered at the Metrolina Recycling Center. BACKGROUND For more than a decade Mecklenburg County Solid Waste (MCSW) has sponsored a paper and cardboard recycling program for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System. During this time Mecklenburg County provided interior recycling bins, educational materials, educational outreach, external collection services under the County’s contract, and a dedicated full time Mecklenburg County employee to manage this program. In 2006, MCSW added a pilot program for can and bottle recycling and again MCSW provided the same essential tools as indicated above to manage and educate this program. At this time, cans and bottles could not be placed into the collection dumpsters with the recycled fiber. By the end of this program there were 104 participating locations, with waiting lists of 20, recycling around 100,000 lbs of recyclable material a year. Mecklenburg County paid for this contracted service while those waiting were required to self-haul their materials to the Recycling Drop-Off centers. Beginning in July of 2010, Mecklenburg County instated its new Single Stream Recycling efforts as well as expanding its recyclable materials to many new items. While Mecklenburg County Solid Waste is attempting to educate, reeducate, and incentivize recycling its efforts are not going unnoticed. Half way through Mecklenburg County’s 2010-2011 fiscal year the CMSS recycling tonnage numbers have increased dramatically to 24% above last year’s performance to date. It is our efforts to continually expand on this upward trend in the CMSS recycling participation. We are not changing the recycling efforts of today but are changing the behaviors of our children for tomorrow. Single stream recycling through Mecklenburg County has now allowed for all schools to recycle many new items including aseptic packaging, including milk and juice cartons. During 2010 CMSS reported that over 18,000,000 milk cartons were being distributed throughout CMSS. A simple survey was then submitted where schools indicated that only 50% was fully participating in milk carton recycling. To enhance the milk and juice carton recycling program Mecklenburg County approached Carton Council, a national organization comprised of a group of packaging companies that seeks to improve the environmental impact of cartons by promoting carton recycling across the country, and by continuously improving the environmental performance of cartons. The Carton Council has agreed to provide a $5,000 donation to Mecklenburg County’s School Milk Carton Recycling Program. In return, Mecklenburg County will serve as a national model for other school systems and as a South East United States pilot program for carton recycling. Mecklenburg County will provide a year end report for the success of the program. Data will be provided by Mecklenburg County’s Metrolina Recovery Facility.

This proposal is to allow Mecklenburg County Solid Waste an opportunity to expand the knowledge of the new milk and juice carton recycling by providing a specialized container, signage, and educational information to each school in CMSS. It is our goal that these efforts will allow students to carry their learned behaviors from their classrooms and into their homes. Mecklenburg County is fully committed to the proposed Mecklenburg County’s School Milk and Juice Carton Recycling program. We want to provide our participants the opportunity to develop the habit of recycling aseptic packages at its fullest capacity. As the second largest school system in the state of NC, CMSS has over 172 school locations, 134,000 students, 9,000 teachers, and over 10,000 staff members. With the creation of this fully implemented program we want to continue our positive progress with our single stream recycling programs with CMSS with the potential to impact over 150,000 people. However, progress requires support to current funding levels and additional funding for growth. With the Mecklenburg County’s continual budget shortfalls the current service level for both containers and collection services are greatly threatened. At this time Mecklenburg County Solid Waste must seek alternative funding mechanisms to fund this South East United States pilot program to help CMSS keep over 23,500,000 milk and juice cartons from entering our landfills. Prior to this grant, the current milk carton recycling program was recently surveyed and determined to be at a 35% participation rate. Of those 35% of schools we feel that a fraction of schools are participating at their full capabilities. OBJECTIVE To increase milk/juice carton recycling in all CMS schools and to provide the educational tools, containers, and proper procedures to recover 75% of the milk and juice cartons annually disposed. It is a goal to have 100% participation from 165 school locations. RESULTS Results indicated that the total reported number of recovered milk and juice cartons was reported as approximately 8,000,000 of the total 23,500,000. Also it is important to note that additional information was supplied from an entire school assessment by Mecklenburg County: Waste Reduction and Recycling staff members and Career Match Solutions temporary laborer. This assessment was conducted throughout the 2012 school year. At the end of the school year 68% of schools were still participating in the Milk and Juice Carton Recycling Program. Of those schools participating 98% of the schools were following the Best Management Practices provided. See charts and graphs below for more information. To enhance the program a 4 week incentive program was administered during the months of October and November of 2012. During this 4 week period 25 schools participated in a chance to win 5- $1,000 prizes for the best milk and juice carton recycling program. This program was funded by the Carton Council. During this 4 week contest these 25 schools recycled over 250,000 cartons. The contest winners were as follows: Selwyn Elementary, Stoney Creek Elementary, Bain Elementary, Sterling Elementary, and Winget Park Elementary. See attached Photo 3(Sterling Elementary) and Photo 4(Winget Park Elementary) who were two of the contest winners. Exhibit 3 displays information from a Waste Composition Study performed by SCS Engineers during December of 2011. It was reported from this study that of the 34.7% of the waste stream was classified as paper (See Exhibit 3). Of the paper collected 5.6% was reported as aseptic/gable top containers.

Table 1: Cost Savings

Project Participation Current

Year Potential Cost

Savings Percentage of Schools Participating 68% 100% Total Number of Schools Participating 112 165 Total Number of Schools in CMSS 165 165 Recycled Milk/Juice Cartons Total Number of Recycled Milk/Juice Cartons 8,000,000 23,500,000 Weight of 1 Carton(lbs) 0.023 0.023 Total Weight of Recycled Milk/Juice Cartons(lbs) 184000 540500 Total Weight of Recycled Milk/Juice Cartons(tons) 92 270.25 Waste Diversion Approximate milk/juice residual liquid per day(lbs) 30 30 Total Number of Schools Participating 112 165 Total Residual Milk/Juice per day(lbs) 3360 4950 Total Number of Days of School per year 180 180 Total Weight of Residual Milk/Juice Diverted from Landfill(lbs) 604800 891000 Total Weight of Residual Milk/Juice Diverted from Landfill(tons) 302.4 445.5 Total Waste Diversion from Landfill Total Weight of Recycled Milk/Juice Cartons(tons) 92 270.25 Total Weight of Residual Milk/Juice Diverted from Landfill(tons) 302.4 445.5 Total Weight Diverted from the Landfill(tons) 394.4 715.75 Total Cost Savings to the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System Landfill Disposal Fee per ton $27.50 $27.50 Total Weight Diverted from the Landfill(tons) 394.4 715.75 Total Cost Savings $10,846.00 $19,683.13

*This table represents the current cost savings for FY2011-12 as well as potential savings if 100% participation was received. The data is based on reported tonnages from Republic Waste Services and approximate residual liquid as seen during site assessments.

Table 2: Fiscal Report

Revenues DEAO Funds Grantee Match

Other Funds Total Revenues

Sale of Cartons in the recycling market

Total Project Revenues

Expenditures DEAO Funds Grantee Match

Other Funds Total Invoice

Red Milk Carton Recycling Bins

$18,749.00 $17,600.00

IKON- Printing of Drink, Empty, Recycle Posters

$1,656.25 $1,656.25

Red Truck Media-Printing of Promotional Banner

$3,343.75

$1,361.25 $4,705.00

Awards Express $193.05 $193.05

Career Match Temporary Solutions

$2,650.56 $2,650.56

Atlantic Courier Services $110.00 $110.00

Total Project Expenditures $18,749.00 $5,000.00 $4,314.86 $28,063.86

Exhibit 3: SCS Engineers Waste Composition Results- CMS

Not Participating

32%

Participating68%

Exhibit 1: Percentage of Schools Participating in Carton Recycling Program

Not Following

Procedures2%

Following Procedures

98%

Exhibit 2: Percentage of schools following BMP Procedures

DISCUSSION The overall results from the project were set to attempt the recovery of 75% of the total number of milk and juice cartons. This was not achieved during this grant process. Only 8,000,000 cartons were reported as being recovered

0

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

16,000,000

18,000,000

Total Cartons Recovered Total Cartons Not Recovered

Table 1: Total Number of Recovered Cartons

which amounted to approximately 34% recovery. There were however, multiple factors that resulted in the presented data. It is important to note that as a direct result from this grant, a second grant was awarded to ReCommunity, the operator of Mecklenburg County’s Metrolina Recycling Center (MRC). This grant was awarded for the purchase of an aseptic optical sorter (see attached Photo 1 and 2). This optical sorter was installed in February 2012. After the installation, ReCommunity has reported seeing a 70% increase in recovered cartons at the MRC. Therefore, a large portion of recovered cartons would not have been recorded prior to the installation of this equipment due to the fact that this program was in existence for 6 months prior. The participation of schools was recorded to be at 68%. During site audits of each school, schools were encouraged not to participate in the program if the program could not be administered as directed in the Best Management Guide provided to them. It was the professional opinion of the Carton Council that only a few schools participating incorrectly can ruin the entire program especially if residual liquids are not emptied prior to recycling. Although this is a concern for all school system’s milk and juice carton programs across the country there was not reported any increases in contaminated loads of recycling by ReCommunity. This may have resulted to the fact that CMS recycles single stream and each load is high in fiber. We feel that any residual liquid would have been absorbed by the fiber in such small quantities that no reportable issues were surfaced. Future studies may include the collection of milk and juice cartons without previously empting each carton. Schools that were not participating in the program did so because of the reasons given below:

1. Too messy 2. Students would not take ownership 3. Not enough custodians to manage the program 4. Not enough milk cartons disposed of to run the program (common problems in high schools) 5. Complete lack of interest or desire

Schools that appeared to have the most difficulty in the program were in the higher education schools (middle and high schools). This could have been due to reduced supervision in waste during lunch hours. Most elementary schools had trash/waste monitors during entire lunch periods. Monitors were generally a member of the custodial staff but were also seen as duties performed by teachers or students. The best programs had some form of enforcement from teachers and/or custodians. Posters and signage did not appear to have any significant impacts on the overall success of the program. The best results were seen in schools where constant education and continual reminders were given to students during lunch hours. It is important to note in Table 1 that the low landfill fees create a much lower cost savings and potential cost savings for the CMSS. Beginning July 1, 2012 these landfill fees will increase to $29.00 resulting in a potential cost savings of $20,756.75. Although this is a minor portion of the entire waste removal budget for CMSS the Return On Investment(ROI) for this grant is 2 Fiscal Years without factoring in the revenue Mecklenburg County gained from the sale of the recycled product. If full participation was received the ROI would have been 1 Fiscal Year. Data in Table 1 is reporting weights received from Republic Waste Services (Mecklenburg County’s contracted hauler), Mecklenburg County’s current contracted disposal fee, and the estimated weights of the individual cartons and residual milk based on site audits. Residual milk can be correlated into this project because prior to this study all liquid remained in trash containers. Through the Best Practice Guide presented to each school the residual milk and juice are disposed of down a drain and into the sewer system. This liquid was a large portion of the waste that was diverted from the landfill and is shown in Table 1. Career Match Temporary Solutions (seen in Table 2) is a temporary services agency in which one individual was hired to assist Mecklenburg County audit all schools in Mecklenburg County. Due to the large school system

Mecklenburg County needed assistance with this task. It was found that it is extremely important to monitor this program. Programs that are not functioning properly were asked not to participate due to sanitary issues. These programs were generally not following the Best Practice Guide that was originally provided to them. It was recorded that 98% of the programs in existence were following the Best Practice Guide and there were only minor issues recorded with the Milk and Juice Carton recycling program. CONCLUSION Although the final outcomes from this grant were not as expected and the intended goals were not met, the CMS Milk and Juice Carton Recycling Program achieved far greater goals than ever expected. Not only did carton recycling get established in 68% of CMS schools it also caused many other factors to occur like the instillation of an aseptic optical sorter, national recognition as a model program, posters and a Best Practice Guide that are uniform to all programs and will be used across the country, and not to mention the positive media attention. This program has already assisted similar structured programs across the country and it will continue to be monitored and improved upon on an annual basis. Due to the results from the Waste Composition Study performed by SCS Engineers, the participation and the total number of recovered cartons this program needs continual improvement to achieve greater results. From this grant CMS now has the tools and infrastructure to hopefully one day achieve 100% participation and 100% recovery of all milk and juice cartons. Thank you to the NCDENR: Community Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant for this opportunity to create such an outstanding program. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the future.

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