Data quality

I'm never sure how much estimating to do. This morning Ed Newman gave me tons of landfill trash projected from refuse contracts going back to 1973. The data points are for years the contracts were started, and do not include minor re-negotiations in the intervening years. For the Calculator I will place any missing years as the average of the years on either side. Landfill tonnage numbers since 2003 have been going up a lot, and Ed tells me that "around then" they started weighing the trash rather than estimating from volume.

There are dozens of different things that Campus Recycling collects and keeps out of the landfill (fluorescent bulbs, CFC gas, construction and development scrap, motor oil, toner cartridges, campus envelopes, etc) and they add more categories to that list each year. But what notes there are on quantities are in different units for each item (boxes of envelopes, crates of styrofoam, pickup trucks of reuseables) that I don't know how to convert to tons or cubic yards for comparison to trash. Ed showed me a conversion chart for items I'm willing to estimate. Still, data collection on that has been a lower priority than ITEM collection, and I'm missing data most years for everything not picked up by Athens Recycling. For the report I'll highlight a subset of years with relatively complete data and explain that there are probably similar numbers for other years. Doesn't change the Calculator tallies any, just how good we look.

Looking further into the calculator I found a column for Compost in the Offsets category! Compost just got much higher on my priority list, and will be a bigger part of my presentation.

a plague on paper filing

I called Athens Hocking Recycling center a few days back and asked for garbage data. The lady who keeps those records is early morning shift, so I had to call back before 3:30pm. She explained that the data I wanted was somewhere in a waist-high stack of paper with the rest of their paper receipts, and that there were no computer records to access. She could maybe find some answers for me in 6 months or so.

Happliy most of what I needed was in another file Ed Newman sent me. It took some deciphering from pages of jumbled notes, but it was a Word document and therefor searchable. Nearly good to go now.

Final word on the landfill

I called them back, figuring that whoever picked up the phone would know the answer. I was right - there is no methane recovery. Not at all surprising, but nice to have it confirmed. Handily all the data is already in short tons, so all I have to do is enter it to the calculator and get numbers for the missing years.

"Are you a Good Landfill, or a Bad Landfill?"

Today after another answering machine plea, Mark-the-Engineer of the landfill called me back. Our trash goes to a "Sanitary Landfill" which means it is compacted rather than incinerated, and isolated from the water table. I unfortunately forgot to ask about methane reclamation, but this is usually used in cities where the capped landfill may be used as an industrial park or golf course. I'll start entering my data into the calculator to see what it looks like, and I'll call back to verify that there is no methane recovery.

As for the missing data - for landfill-bound trash I have 4 recent years of the coveted 18 - the landfill records the tonnage by the hauling company, not by the source. I believe our hauling company is Athens/Hocking Recycling Center, but I'll have to check my notes and maybe call Ed Newman back. If I provide the landfill with a hauling company, they can give me annual tonnage brought by them. That hauling company would be another data source possibility. Recycling data on the other hand is far more complete.

Landfill Data

Our trash goes to the Athens-Hocking Reclamation Center in Nelsonville, run by Kilbargers Construction. I called them up a few days ago to find out more, but the guy who answered had trucks waiting and didn't have time for questions. Instead he suggested I call Mark the Engineer, which I did. I left a clear message mentioning the GHG inventory and the Office of Sustainability, and asked him to return my call. I've called back since, but so far have not reached Mark. I'll keep calling.

Recycling & Waste Data

Ed Newman's folder contents were easily deciphered, and I have the recycling heavy-hitter data (cardboard, plastics, papers, cans, etc.) solid for most of the past 10 years. I'll be returning his files tomorrow. [Edit 10/15/07: Files returned.] What's missing is landfill totals for half of those years, and the special item recycling, like fluorescent bulbs, tires, computers, mattresses, and Re-Use donations. I have a list of names to call to fill in that data, starting at the landfill and filling in the rest as time permits. Hopefully when I'm done I can hand Ed back a complete & working spreadsheet.

Recycling and trash data is recorded as campus-wide totals, so I won't be adding this to the per-building analyses. I suppose we could get really creative and estimate building-level data from the recycling and trash pick-up schedule frequencies, but with that much estimation it wouldn't be "low-hanging fruit".

Recycling Data

Today I met with Ed Newman to get the data Nicole mentioned. We spoke for an hour or so about the history of recycling at OU and where he'd like to see us go as a campus. I learned a great deal about what happens to our recyclables after they leave campus, and the plans for the composting program. Then Ed showed me the relevant websites on campus recycling and recycle mania. The campus site is out-of-date, but he handed me hard copies of the more recent data. In fact he handed me a massive folder of fax print-outs and pamphlets and invoices and notes. Chances are, most of what we need is in there, and he gave me a list of phone numbers for any missing data, and for the landfill to determine what kind of treatment they use. I'm working on getting it digital and on one sheet right now.

GIS files and Waste Leads

No reply yet from Dave Simon, so I sent him a reminder nudge today and offered to pick up in person any files too large to email.

I've decided to tackle campus waste, focusing on recycling-to-trash ratios and sewage treatment. Ed Newman of Campus Recycling said he'll send me records on recycling and solid waste sometime this week, and gave me leads on who to contact for sewage data:

OU Utilities Director Mick Harris at harris@ohio.edu
City of Athens Utility Director Nick Carr
Larry Lambert over the City of Athens Sewer Department

That's all for now. =)

Data should be based on fiscal years

This is just a note to say that according to Jennifer Schroeder, program officer and webmaster for Clean Air-Cool Planet, the majority of colleges collect data based on fiscal years. I am posting this as a separate post because I think it is relevant to categories for which information included in previous posts about this issue is not.

This post is to establish post labels.