San Diego Selects GBB to Provide Solid Waste Collection Systems Expertise

...GBB Project Team members - who have extensive experience in both the private and public sectors - have worked on several operational studies and will have the ability to easily identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiencies as well as share knowledge and lessons learned. Joining GBB for this assignment is California-based IntelliWaste, Inc., led by Archie Humphrey, who brings more than 30 years of experience in the private sector managing large projects including collection systems, recycling, processing and transfer and solid waste sanitary landfill operations across California.

The City of San Diego has been providing uninterrupted refuse collection services for residents since 1919. As the City has grown into the nation's eighth largest, with a population of more than 1.3 million residents occupying a land area of 372 square miles, the collection system has grown in size and complexity. The City currently provides weekly refuse collection services to approximately 289,000 residential units and bi-weekly yard waste collection services to 190,000 residential units. Collection services for smaller City facilities are also provided, along with seven day a week collection of public litter containers in business districts throughout the City. In FY2010, approximately 420,000 tons of waste, recyclables and greenery from more than 25 million stops were collected.

GBB has been selected by the GeoTechnical Research Institute (GTRI), under the auspices of the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), to provide consulting assistance to the City of Houston, TX for its "One Bin for All" initiative, utilizing mechanical biological treatment with advanced resource recovery processing for residential municipal solid waste.

The "One Bin for All" waste and recycling concept is a revolutionary idea that involves residents discarding all materials in one bin, treating trash as valuable assets, and dramatically increasing recycling through the use of game changing technologies. The concept, which was brought forward by the City of Houston, is one of five winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge, a competition designed to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas.

The ambitious project includes developing a cost neutral procurement process for a multi-year contract for the processing of the City's residential waste and ensuring that a waste diversion goal of 55% is reached in year one and 75% after two years.

"Mayor Annise Parker set forth a very ambitious project with the 'One Bin for All' project for a total material resource recovery facility in the U.S., and we are honored to have been selected to work with the City of Houston," said Harvey W. Gershman, GBB President.

Congratulations to Lori Scozzafava and Sara Bixby!

In May, two former GBBers were nominated for key leadership positions at important industry associations. Their respective backgrounds and experience are well suited for the interesting challenges that their new positions will undoubtedly bring. GBB is proud to see former colleagues pursue their passion for the environment with such important leadership roles and wishes them both the best of luck!

Lori Scozzafava - USCC Executive Director
Lori, who has been involved in solid waste management for over 25 years, becomes Executive Director of the United States Composting Council. She was previously with SWANA for 13 years, including 8 as Deputy Executive Director. From 1989 to 1991, she was a GBB consultant and worked on many recycling plans for clients that included the City of Baltimore and Baltimore County, MD. She also worked in the public sector as Director of the Maryland Department of the Environment, Recycling Division, and Recycling Coordinator at Morris County, NJ.

Sara Bixby - SWANA Deputy Executive Director
Sara, who has been involved in solid waste management for over 20 years, becomes Deputy Executive Director for Administration, Information Technology and Financial Management at the Solid Waste Association of North America after over 10 years as Director of the South Central Iowa Solid Waste Agency. Throughout her career, she has been heavily involved with SWANA in various capacities, and was a GBB consultant from 1992 to 1994.

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