Agenda - Council - 11/25/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- 47 - of approximate implementation time periods. Fourth, the same three steps were completed for resource recovery systems, such that when combined with source separation objectives for the year 2000, the two do not add up to more than about 90 percent of the waste stream. Finally, the objectives for each material in each target year were multiplied by the corresponding percent of net waste stream from Table 4. The result was to show the impact of each line item objective on the net waste stream. Estimates of the impact on the net waste stream are summarized in the far right column of Tables 5 and 6. A comparison of Tables 5 and 6 reveals that regional objectives for land disposal abatement are very specific, even down to individual subcate- gories, such as paper grades, metal types and colors of glass. This is necessary because the viability of the specific strategies listed in Sec- tion III depend on regional materials and energy markets. The two tables also reveal that the Region must rely on both low- and high-technology systems to reduce future landfill needs. Table 5 indicates that source separation systems should account for the vast majority of the Region's recovery for the next five years. These would be similar to the present system, only on a large scale. Then, by 1990 high-technology systems should be on line to recover the fuel and organic value of solid waste that cannot be obtained through low-technology systems. Once both systems are fully operational, they will complement each other. For instance, at this time it is not technically possible to recover high- quality, "clean" glass through mechanical separation. Therefore, the Region should depend on source separation to remove as much of the glass as possible from the waste stream and improve the energy value of the remaining mixed waste, similar objectives are proposed for the other noncombustibles, except for ferrous cans. Current magnetic separation technology permits high-volume recovery of ferrous materials from mixed waste. The current recycling rates and objectives for paper indicate that the Region is already near the optimum recycling rate for corrugated and about 25.percent of the market saturation point for newspaper. It is projected that the 70-percent recovery rate for corrugated will continue over the long run. It is less certain that newspaper markets will increase. However, if a stable supply of newspaper can be established, new markets will be more likely to develop in the Region. Current market conditions for office paper are excellent, with essentially unlimited potential for increased recovery. The other grades of paper are less valuable and there- fore the objectives show that these will most likely stay in the mixed waste stream and be made available for energy or biological recovery systems. The source separation objectives for rubber and wood indicate that, because of the fuel value of these materials, they may be removed before the mixed waste stream is disposed of. Wood-burning boilers and household stoves may increase the demand for waste wood. Experiments are currently being conducted on the feasibility of tire shredders and boilers that would process separated waste rubber as a supplemental fuel.