Vocabulary List

• Toxicity: the quality of being toxic or poisonous
  
  
• Anaerobic: relating to, involving, or requiring an absence of free oxygen
  
  
• Landfill: a place to dispose of refuse and other waste material by burying it and covering it over with soil
  
  
• Stringent: strict, precise, and exacting
  
  
• Municipal: relating to a city or town or its governing body
  
  
• Hazardous: risky or dangerous
  
  
• Ferrous: containing or consisting of iron
  
  
• Sheetrock: a type of plasterboard made of gypsum layered between sheets of heavy paper
  
  
• Conveyors: a person or thing that transports something
  
  
• Noise: a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance
  
  
• Deodorizing: remove or conceal an unpleasant smell
  
  
• Nuisance: a person, thing, or circumstance causing annoyance
  
  

Case Example

Two cities each with a population of about 20,000 share a landfill to bury their solid waste. The landfill is located about a mile outside of the first town but about ten miles from the second city. The second city has a garbage collection service once a month that passes through the city and carries the garbage to the landfill, but in the past few years, this service has become inadequate, and residents have turned to open dumping in their neighborhoods. During that time, the open dumping created breeding grounds for mosquitos, flies, and rats. The community has noticed an increase in diarrhea, malaria, and dengue, especially after rains and the people living nearby the open dumping have skin disorders and colds.
 
Living near open dumping can lead to a greater load of disease in a community. The use of neighborhood transfer stations can be used to deter the effects of open dumping.

Introduction

Solid waste—also known as garbage, trash, or rubbish—consists of everyday items such as cardboard, paper, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, appliances, paint, and batteries. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recommended a hierarchy for solid waste management. The four steps are source reduction, recycling, energy recovery, treatment and disposal.
Source reduction, also known as waste prevention, means reducing waste at the source and is the most environmentally conscious strategy. It can take many different forms, including reusing or donating items, buying in bulk, reducing packaging, redesigning products, and reducing toxicity. Source reduction also is important in manufacturing. Light weighting of packaging, reuse, and remanufacturing are all becoming more popular business trends (EPA, 2022).

Recycling is a series of activities that includes collecting used, reused, or unused items that would otherwise be considered waste; sorting and processing the recyclable products into raw materials; and remanufacturing the recycled raw materials into new products. Recycling also can include composting food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic materials (EPA, 2022).

Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through various processes, including burning, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery. This process is often called waste-to-energy (WTE). After energy is recovered, approximately ten percent of the volume remains as ash, which is generally sent to a landfill (EPA, 2022).

Prior to disposal, treatment can help reduce the volume and toxicity of waste. Treatments can be physical such as shredding, chemical such as burning, and biological such as anaerobic digestion. Landfills are the most common form of waste disposal. Modern landfills are well-engineered facilities located, designed, operated, and monitored. Landfills must meet stringent design, operation, and closure requirements. Methane, a byproduct of decomposing waste, can be collected and used as fuel to generate electricity. After a landfill is capped, the land may be used for recreation sites such as parks, golf courses, and ski slopes (EPA, 2022).
 
Transfer Stations

Waste transfer stations are facilities where solid waste is unloaded from collection vehicles and briefly held while it is reloaded onto larger long-distance transport vehicles for shipment to landfills. By combining the loads of several individual waste collection trucks into a single shipment, communities can save money on the labor and operating costs of transporting the waste to a distant disposal site. They can also reduce the total number of vehicular trips traveling to and from the disposal site. Although waste transfer stations help reduce the impacts of trucks traveling to and from the disposal site, they can cause an increase in traffic in the immediate area where they are located. If not properly located, designed, and operated, they can cause problems for residents living near them (EPA, 2016). Neighborhood transfer stations that are open to the public give people the ability to throw away their trash without having to travel out to a landfill, which are often located out of town.

Wastes Commonly Handled at Transfer Stations

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is waste generated by households, businesses, institutions, and industry. It includes discarded containers and packaging, food wastes, and paper products.

Yard waste is often diverted so that it may be composted or mulched. It includes grass clippings and tree trimmings.

Household hazardous waste (HHW) includes hazardous materials generated by households. HHW includes cleaning products; pesticides and herbicides; and used automotive products such as motor oil, brake fluid, antifreeze, and paint.

Recyclables are discarded materials that can be reprocessed for manufacture into new products such as paper and newsprint, ferrous metals, plastic glass containers and aluminum cans, motor oil, and tires.

Construction and demolition debris (C&D) are debris resulting from demolition or construction of buildings, roads, and other structures. C&D includes concrete, brick and masonry, wood, roofing materials, sheetrock, and plaster.

Transfer Station Inspections

Transfer station inspections are conducted following the same protocol as food safety and group home inspections.

Opening Conference

During the opening conference, an inspector should explain why they are there and the scope of the inspection. Next, the inspector should ask to look at the facility’s permit and employee training records. The inspector should find out what types of waste are accepted and the protocol for cleaning the dumping floor.

Walkaround Inspection

The inspector should walk through the facility and look at the dumping floor, the recycling areas, and the area around the transfer station.

Closing Conference

After completing the walkaround inspection, the inspector should meet with the supervisor to discuss what was observed and what can be done to fix any deficiencies that were identified.

Written Report

After an inspector finishes the inspection, they should use the notes from the inspection to write an inspection report. The report should include the following:

• An introduction
• Narrative
• Methodology (if any testing was conducted)
• A results table (if testing was conducted)
• A results and recommendation table that lists any unsafe practices and how to resolve them.

The final report should be sent to the supervisor of the transfer facility.

Examples of Transfer Station Health and Safety Issues

Transfer station regulations are jurisdiction dependent, which means every city, county, state, or province may have their own safety regulations. Inspectors should learn and become familiar with the regulations in the area where they work. Below is a list of general transfer station issues and practices organized by specific categories. The list was created from EPA pamphlets (EPA, 2001; EPA, 2002).

Traffic

Transfer stations reduce overall traffic by consolidating smaller loads into larger vehicles. However, these facilities will generate additional amounts of traffic in their immediate area. This traffic can contribute to increased road congestion, air emissions, noise, and wear on roads. For this reason, waste transfer stations are often located in industrial areas that have ready access to major roads.

• Sites should have direct access to truck routes, highways, or rail terminals.
• Sites should have adequate space within the facility site so that customers waiting to use the transfer station do not interrupt traffic on public roads or impact nearby residences or businesses.
• Designated haul routes to and from the transfer station should avoid congested areas, residential areas, business districts, schools, hospitals and other sensitive areas.

Noise

Heavy truck traffic and the operation of heavy-duty facility equipment (such as conveyors and front-end loaders) are the primary sources of noise from a transfer station.

• Sites should confine noisy activities within buildings or other enclosures as much as possible.
• Sites should use landscaping, sound barriers, and earth berms to absorb exterior noise.
• Sites should arrange the site so that traffic flows are not adjacent to properties that are sensitive to noise.
• Sites should conduct activities that generate the most amount of noise during the day.

Smell

Garbage, particularly food waste and grass, has a high potential for odor. Proper facility design can significantly reduce odor problems. Carefully positioning the building and its doorways with respect to neighbors is a good first step. At the transfer building itself, exhaust fans with air filters and rooftop exhaust vents can further reduce off-site odor impacts.

• Sites should use “first-in, first-out” waste handling practices that keep waste on site only for short periods of time.
• Sites should remove all waste from the dumping or tipping floor or pit by the end of each operating day so that these surfaces can be swept clean and washed down.
• Sites should use good housekeeping measures, including regular cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and equipment that meets waste.
• Sites may need to use water misting and/or deodorizing systems.

Animals 

Rodents and birds can be a nuisance and a potential health concern at waste transfer stations. Good housekeeping practices are a simple and effective means of minimizing their presence.

• Sites should remove all waste delivered to the facility by the end of each day.
• Sites should receive waste only within an enclosed structure and otherwise preventing litter can reduce the presence of birds.
• If problems persist in the vicinity, baiting and trapping can control rodents.

Machinery

Transfer stations may have many types of vehicles or machinery on site that need to be properly maintained and used.

• Machinery such as loaders in proper maintenance
• Back up alarms on machinery functional
• Machine operators are properly trained and licensed

References

EPA. (2001). Waste Transfer Stations: Involved Citizens make the Difference. ().https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/pdf/wtsguide.pdf

EPA. (2002). Waste Transfer Stations: A Manual for Decision-Making. (). https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/pdf/r02002.pdf

EPA. (2016). Transfer Stations. Retrieved Jan 13, 2023, from https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/transfer.html

EPA. (2022). Sustainable Materials Management: Non-Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Hierarchy. Retrieved Jan 13, 2023, from https://www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-materials-management-non-hazardous-materials-and-waste-management-hierarchy