When change is worth the pain, reflections at year's end.

New Year's resolutions, we've all made them. Usually they involve some change we want to make in our life to improve it. Change is never easy, but the resulting improvements provide the reward we need to keep going till we can make that change a habit we can maintain. Stopping to take time to reflect on our personal life is important.

Reflecting and contemplating change for an operation or organization is an even greater challenge and equally important. The manager who reflects on his business, and looks at the big picture, cares just like an individual who is steward of his body. If as a business we want to reach larger goals, have a smoother operation, or make more money it will only happen if we make changes to our operation. It doesn't work to expect different results from the same operation.

Why do we make resolutions to exercise or eat more healthy? We do it because our bodies will run better, we won't be tired and sluggish, we will be able to accomplish more in our days. So it is with a business. Changes won't be without pain, but the end results will be worth it.

What changes do you want to make going into the New Year? Take time this week to consider what it might take to improve your operation, then be willing to overcome the pain it might take to achieve that goal.

Customer finds savings significant

This article highlights how Posi-Shell is making a difference in a North Carolina customer's landfill.

Profitability and maintenance

Maintenance often gets a bad rap. By definition maintenance is the process of preserving something or someone. My own experience in learning the value of maintenance stems from my husband of 30 years who has done a great job maintaining my car and so much more. Along the way he also taught our children the value of maintenance (a favorite story they tell is about the time they left their bicycle out in the rain and they had to stand in the rain to see how they liked being left outside in the elements). Maintenance usually comes at a price sometimes time, sometimes money - often both.

The recent issue of MSW Management magazine (Nov/Dec 2011 page 22) has an article titled "The Profitability and the Art of Landfill Equipment Maintenance". It highlights that the size of a landfill's fleet of equipment requiring maintenance will be governed in part by what type of cover operation they choose.

Recently in our office here we have been studying the cost of maintaining various pieces of landfill equipment, specifically to study what kind of savings are available to a landfill that opts for Posi-Shell as their daily cover. It is significant. When you can greatly reduce the hours of use on a haul truck (or two), a dozer, scraper, loader, or excavator the process of preserving your fleet is much easier.

Daniel Duffy's article does a great job of highlighting how best to protect your equipment in the harsh landfill environment. He quoted Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance." If you want less maintenance - use a system that requires less equipment.

Making the most of your landfill

When it comes to landfills, technology is opening many doors both reducing the amount of material going into a landfill and the harvesting of resources from a landfill. Making the most of the landfill as a resource includes taking care in the filling. Soil layers from daily cover or intermediate cover take up valuable space, reducing the amount of material coming in, reducing the amount of compaction a landfill can achieve, and often interfering with the movement of leachate and gas.

Reducing the amount of soil going into landfill cells opens the door to greater revenues. Moving soil can be a significant expense in terms of manpower, equipment, and fuel use.

At Wastecon coming up in August we will be serving up dirt at our booth #609. Stop by and have a cup, and talk with us about your landfill. We'd love to learn what you are doing to make the most of your resource.

For the Birds

A problem common to most landfills are birds, digging in the trash, messing things up, generally being a nuisance. At Waste Expo this year, just a couple isles from us we could see a bird on a pole - and in the Waste & Recycling News that I got today I see they did an article on that bird. It seems that Predatech - the company who had the booth - have created this battery operated bird to mimic the look, sound, and movement of a live falcon. Falcons as birds of prey have been effectively used by some landfills to help deter the nuisance birds. However not every landfill has the right people available to host a live bird deterrent program. Now there is a new option. Predatech created this robot bird.

Just thought we would put this out in case you hadn't see the information. If you need a new way to combat nuisance birds - check them out at www.predatech.ca .

The Landfill Manager's Biggest Challenge

In a conversation recently with a customer who manages a municipal landfill that gets no tax dollars - his response to a question about his biggest challenge told a lot about him. His concern was for his people - his employees. In order to secure for them a workplace he needed to make sure his site had the volume of waste to generate the needed revenue to keep a working environment possible. This means doing what they can to be competitive in a price dominated market. He looks to save and cut costs and run an efficient operation. Both the products they choose to use, and the way they run their operation contribute to that efficiency.

His concern for them changes the way they view their work. He spoke of employees who take pride in their work - in caring for the equipment they operate. They are all doing their part to make for an efficient operation - everyone's jobs depend on it.

The way I see it, there is a push for efficiency and cost cutting that will meet acceptance and cooperation. May they all succeed.

New Equipment Release

This week our newest Applicator in the line was released - the PSA-1000. We are excited to be able to offer equipment to meet the needs of our customers that will benefit their operations. The reserve water tank, with it's own pumping unit - makes for easy cleaning of not only the Applicator - but also anything else you want to clean with a pressure wash. Our Posi-Tru Ground Clearance will enable this unit to go to the places where it is needed.

If you are in need of an application unit for spray-applied products give us a call. Details will be posted to our website shortly - but for now our staff can tell you all about this great applicator.

A landfill IS a terrible thing to waste

While looking for some images today I ran across one that was just some text that read "A landfill is a terrible thing to waste". It was a headline for a newsletter for the San Leandro area of California. They were writing about landfill diversion rates and such - but it made me thing back to our last post about the discussion about green waste. Certainly it is a terrible thing to waste landfill airspace with anything that could be used beneficially elsewhere - including green waste.

Things to think about

Recently while traveling in California we were made aware of a discussion that is being had on the subject of green waste and its use as an alternate daily cover (adc). To read the whole article go to this link.

All uses of adc are to be commended as they striving to conserve precious soil and air resources. California has certainly led the way in promoting conservation in many different ways.