Leachate on the move

At a recent regional Swana conference the discussion of one session centered around reducing or fixing leachate seeps. This problem of leachate breaking out of the landfill at a location not in the design is not uncommon. In "The Solid Waste Handbook" William Robinson states that "The use of heavier textured soils as daily cover may interfere with the downward movement of leachate and has resulted in the appearance of leachate seeps on the side of a landfill."
The Swana conference presenter, a regional engineer for a publicly held waste company, stated one effective way of preventing these seeps is to use an Alternate Daily Cover product - thereby avoiding those heavier soil layers that can interfere with the flow of leachate through the landfill and reducing soil usage.
Todd Green, of American Environmental commented that Posi-Shell made a big difference for their landfill in eliminating leachate breakouts allowing leachate to make it's way to the liner and recirculate more quickly.
The importance of keeping leachate within the landfill is vital to public water and safety, taking the needed steps to protect our water makes the issue of daily cover more than just a decision of preference.

What do customers say? It's Easy.

Things are going wonderfully. Thanks so much for coming down to go through everything with Barry and me. It was very helpful. So far, Barry and I are still the only ones doing the Posi-shell. We plan to slowly work some of the other guys into it. We’re trying to find the right mixture for us as far as adding the paint is concerned. But honestly, we have been very happy with the ease and the time that it will free up. Thanks again for everything!

Marcie A. Smith

Quality people

A recent comment received from a customer just reflects what we enjoy as a part of the team at LSC - quality people.

From an email:
Just wanted to let you know Scott finished up out here and he did an outstanding job. I bet it's nice to have someone of his caliber working for LSC. Very cordial, polite, and technically very thorough!

Thanks again to all!

Respectfully,

Brian Van Straten|Operations Manager|Buena Vista Landfill Recycling & Solid Waste Services Operations

Quality people make all the difference.

A celebration of 20 years

The City of Albany Landfill, run by Joe Giebelhaus is a model of best practices in the modern landfill. Last week I got to see for myself as we went there to celebrate the 20 years we have provided the Posi-Shell product to the City of Albany Landfill for use as daily cover, intermediate cover and much more. The site has grown over the years from the "old days" of unlined landfilling practices. Today you will find there a modern lined landfill, with shredding capabilities to process those items that would otherwise decrease the ability to compact and place the waste efficiently. A well organized site with different locations to deposit waste of different types for proper processing makes the motion of the site smooth. Landfill gas is being captured and utilized to create electricity, and has been for years now. GPS software allows not only the operator to monitor the compaction beneath him, but management from the office can observe the movement as well, allowing them to properly plan as waste streams into the facility from many sources.

It was great to hear about the planning that is going into the future for this facility. Native trees and plants are going to begin to be grown there as they develop a nursery to eventually populate a preserve over the landfill as it moves into a closed state.

Today's landfill manager needs to be a person of many skills; people skills in managing the large crew required to staff such an operation, engineering skills to plan and organize the construction projects that are constant, business skills to make the best financial decisions to allow a facility to be profitable, and vision to plan ahead for a bright future as a facility closes and the space turns to a new life. Joe has shared his skills successfully in Albany and we count it a privilege to provide tools he can use.

Posi-Shell on Display

On Tuesday, August 10th we were one of a select few vendors invited to a nationwide Waste Connections’ managers meeting held at one of their facilities near Denver, Colorado. Thanks again to the team at WCN for this invitation, as opportunities like this (live demonstration in one place for so many decision makers) are rare. We demonstrated our Posi-Shell Environmental coatings and set up one of our Solar-Spark Vent Flares as a static display.



Our Central and Western Regional Sales Managers, Jim Shumsky and JD Carter put in a lot of time bringing their demonstration units to the site and did a phenomenal job of showing our stuff. The day prior to the demo, they applied a panel of our long-term product and were able to show first-hand it’s durability because it rained like cats and dogs immediately after they applied it and on into the evening! This photo taken the next morning shows that NONE of the Posi-Shell washed!



Jeff, the manager for Waste Connections in charge of coordinating the event, did an awesome job as everything seemed to go off like clockwork. On Tuesday morning two tour buses arrived with a small army of the nation’s top landfill managers coming to check out various landfill products being demonstrated. One of our demo units contained a short-term (for overnight/week long cover) version of Posi-Shell and the other unit had the long-term version (multi-month/year cover).



Everybody seemed duly impressed with how quickly and efficiently Posi-Shell covered. When they were made aware that the overnight cover they were seeing costs less than a penny a square foot and that standard hydroseeding units can be used to apply it, the requests for site specific demonstrations started piling up.

Submitted by Joel Lanz - President

Problem solving

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." Voltaire

The current economy is pushing everyone to cut costs. Managers looking over their whole operation with an eye to cutting costs are challenged to put all of their problem solving skills into action. It is so important for each of us to have a large perspective when seeking answers. Remembering to look at situations from different angles, asking tough questions, and changing our perspective will give us an advantage. Keeping a broad perspective will definitely influence how you approach a problem - and it's final outcome.

Abraham Maslow said "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

Take some time this week to stretch your mind, find one of the books out there just for that purpose. One you might consider "Mind Boggling one-minute Mysteries and Brain teasers". It's just a fun book but it will challenge you to think and just maybe it will help you gain the perspective you need.

Rain Shield in Vietnam

Vietnam Waste Solutions operates a major modern landfill serving Ho Chi Minh City. Posi-Shell ADC and odor control coatings are an integral part of the daily operations at this site.

Southern Vietnam experiences a monsoon climate with daily heavy rains during the wet season, lasting throughout the summer. Landfill Service Corporation developed Xtreme Rain Shield tm to meet the challenge of providing a water based spray-on ADC which will not wash away in immediate heavy rain.

Field trials were conducted at the Da Phuoc Landfill in Ho Chi Minh City during July, 2009. Several possible mixtures were applied; complete success was achieved with the "monsoon" mixture which held up extremely well after an immediate heavy rain, and the cover remained intact after over 7 inches of rainfall over the following several days.

LSC now offers Xtreme Rain Shield tm in several mixtures tailored to specific climate requirements, ranging from temperate North American conditions with occasional rainfall, to Asian monsoon climates with daily heavy rain.

This product works!