The National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) has released its Federal Legislative and Regulatory Agenda for 2019 in advance of the House and Senate finalizing committee assignments for members of the 116th Congress. This document stakes out the waste and recycling industry’s policy positions on three dozen federal issues. The agenda can be found on NWRA’s website.

“Last year, NWRA’s Government Affairs Committee approved 36 policy positions on the most pressing federal issues impacting the waste and recycling industry. We have updated these positions for 2019 to reflect changes in congressional priorities as well as our successes from 2018,” says NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith in a press release. “We will continue our aggressive lobbying effort in support of these policies aimed at maintaining a strong and robust waste and recycling industry that benefits the American public.”

“NWRA welcomes the freshmen members of Congress. We look forward to engaging both sides of the political aisle to achieve bipartisan solutions on our industry’s top issues," says Jim Riley, the vice president for federal affairs and deputy general counsel.

To date, at least 17 fatal incidents have occurred relating to the solid waste industry in the U.S. and Canada in 2019, the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) says in a recent press release. SWANA is calling for a renewed focus on safety in response what it calls an “unprecedented uptick in fatalities.” Although there is no common denominator for the cause of all these accidents, SWANA says, reviewing safety fundamentals now will likely help prevent future incidents.

“The surge in fatal incidents involving solid waste personnel and vehicles in January is unprecedented in my 20-plus years in the industry and is unacceptable,” says David Biderman, the executive director and CEO of SWANA. “Regardless of who was at fault, each incident is tragic, and we urge all solid waste employers and employees in the United States and Canada to review their safety procedures and operations and commit to being safer in 2019.”

SWANA says it urges solid waste employers and employees in the U.S. and Canada to share this data and review their training and operations to help put an end to this series of deaths.

“The frontline employees of Waste Management have a continued focus on protecting themselves by following our operating rules and accepting safety as our core value without compromise. Industry fatalities are shared by managers with employees to build knowledge and raise immediate awareness,” says Jeff Martin, the vice president of the Houston-based Waste Management. “Sadly, the majority of industry employees are injured or killed outside of their trucks. With the continued increase of distracted motorists, all employees must remain 100 percent focused 100 percent of the time while serving our communities. A longer-term solution is moving to automated side-load trucks to ensure the securement and overall protection of drivers keeping them in the cabs.”

Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the 2017 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, identifying 30 fatalities among refuse and recyclable material collectors, making it the job with the fifth highest fatality rate in the U.S.

“Waste Connection’s first value is safety. The safety of our team members, customers and the communities we are privileged to work in, is of the utmost importance. As the societal distractions of cell phones, texting and mobile internet continue to create unsafe situations on the roadways we share, we will endeavor to raise the level of awareness to all unsafe behaviors and do our part to create safer roadways. We fully support SWANA’s initiative to eliminate unsafe behaviors from the waste industry and encourage all organizations to join us in supporting SWANA’s safety initiatives,” says Shawn Mandel, the vice president of Safety & Risk at Waste Connections, Ontario, Canada.

SWANA says the 17 industry-related deaths within the first 22 days of 2019 is a tragic reminder that the organization needs to keep pushing for a stronger commitment to safety from the industry, elected officials and the general public. SWANA says it will continue to focus on expanding its safety program with the goal of raising awareness and removing solid waste collection off the BLS’s list of most dangerous jobs.

“I share SWANA’s concern about the recent increase in fatal incidents involving waste collection vehicles. There have been two in New York already this year, and January isn’t even over yet. I will be working with other safety leaders in our chapter to provide additional safety resources and tools to members and non-members in the coming months,” says Paul Zambrotta, the safety director of Mr. T Carting of Brooklyn, New York. Zambrotta is the SWANA New York State chapter safety ambassador and a frequent speaker at industry safety events in New York City.

SWANA provides free resources on its Safety Matters webpage, which contains valuable tools for both collection and post-collection. SWANA will also host numerous safety events this year, including a live safety webinar at noon EST on Jan. 29. Safety issues will also be discussed at SWANApalooza in Boston, Massachusetts, Feb. 25-28, as well as at SWANA’s 7th Safety Summit at WASTECON in Phoenix Oct. 21-24.

For more information on SWANA’s safety programs, visit swana.org/safety.

The ALBA Group Asia subsidiary of Berlin-based ALBA Group, Baguio Waste Management & Recycling Ltd. and Swire Beverages Holdings Ltd. have formed a joint venture (JV) to operate a recycling and reprocessing facility for plastic scrap in Hong Kong.

Recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles into secondary resins will be the primary focus of the new plant.

The facility is expected to be built within Hong Kong’s EcoPark and to be operational by the third quarter of 2020. Baguio was approved as a tenant at the EcoPark in late 2017.

The JV has been designed to combine the strengths of Baguio’s domestic collection network in Hong Kong with ALBA’s recycling technology experience and Swire Beverages’ marketing and advertising reach in the Hong Kong beverage market.

The facility will process postconsumer PET beverage bottles and HDPE personal care bottles, which the companies have deemed as collectable in the foreseeable future. The plant will include a near infra-red (NIR) sorting facility and two secondary resin production lines—one for food grade PET flake and the other for HDPE pellets.

Germany-based ALBA has been involved in Hong Kong as the builder and operator of an electronics recycling plant in the city. Hong Kong-based Baguio has been collecting postconsumer recyclables in Hong Kong for several years, as detailed in this 2015 Recycling Today feature article.

Swire Properties Ltd. has been appointed as the project manager for the design and construction of the facility.

Germany-based SMS Group has been selected by Nucor-Yamato Steel Co. for the replacement and upgrade of rolling equipment at the firm’s heavy section mill in Blytheville, Arkansas.

The Blytheville site includes two rolling facilities commonly referred to as Mill 1 and Mill 2, capable of producing an annual capacity of 2.4 million tons of finished product. SMS group will upgrade Mill 2, which produces large wide flange and H-pile sections. The core of the upgrade is the substitution of two existing rolling mill stands with a new SMS tandem-reversing mill type CCS 1500.

“The upgrade will allow Nucor-Yamato to expand our production capabilities and include new high-strength steel grades,” says Thad Solomon, vice president and general manager of Nucor-Yamato Steel. “We are committed to growing our market leadership position in structural steel and this project advances that goal.”

Adds Thomas Maßmann, a vice president Section with SMS Group, “This project solidifies the excellent relationship between our two companies following the successful outcome on the earlier upgrade project SMS completed on Mill 1.”

SMS Group says it will supply the mechanical equipment and the mill control automation, and that the start-up of the new tandem reversing mill is planned for the second half 2020.