Laura Stiller, Recycling Coordinator
Sue Bergeron
Barbara L. Maclennan
Monongalia County Solid Waste Authority
The West Virginia Recycling Act, W.Va. §22-15A-16
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State goal of 50% reduction of the waste stream by
2010.
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Only mandates recycling for residents/businesses
- municipalities with a population of over 10,000 (only 10 count)
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Solid waste management in West Virginia is not based
on a free-market system.
Instead, different aspects of the total management of
solid waste are split between several state agencies.
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WV Public Service Commission
WV DEP
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Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP)
WV Solid Waste Management Board
WV Solid Waste Authorities
Litter Control Officers
Landfills
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Visible Public Good
Increase jobs in the region
WV Economic Development tied to
recycling & waste management
More efficient long distance hauling
Improve environment
Create new industry
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Becoming increasingly important worldwide
Local business with global markets
Everyone produces waste:
Residents
Construction
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Businesses
Events
Industry
Entertainment
Waste is a by-product of living
Solid waste should be thought of as
infrastructure
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similar to sewage, water, electric, and roads
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University Towne Centre Morgantown, WV
$25M+ to build
Did not think about trash service/recycling
until AFTER built
Road had to be
retroactively built for
trash trucks/bins.
Still only one access
road.
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Marion County Solid Waste Authority
Analysis determined shorter transportation
times more profitable
Marion County Solid Waste Authority creating
a transfer station to send material to
Monongalia County Distribution Center
Saves money for Marion County and haulers
Creates jobs and income through commodities
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MCSWA currently acts as
processing/distribution center
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Analysis indicated need for a bigger facility
MCSWA currently only publicly-owned
financially self-sustaining recycling facility
in N.E. U.S
Experienced growth during market crash
Has markets others don’t: #4-#7 plastic,
prescription bottles, plastic film, glass, etc.
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Recycling not mandated
Recycling wholly voluntary
Regulated as a utility
No free-market for hauling solid
waste/recyclables
Not supported by taxes
Few counties with landfill revenue
No urban areas
Few interstate routes
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Design Goals
 Develop a GIS that could be utilized in both day-today operations at the MCSWA and in long-range
planning
 Demonstrate how solid waste and recycling could be
integrated with other government services to create a
comprehensive GIS management and planning tool
Data Collection
 Identify and map local and regional recycling dropoff locations and resources
 Identify and map waste hauler territories and routes
 Identify and map relevant data related to
environmental issues, such as open dumps, water
quality, etc.
 Develop demographic layers to aid in improving
recycling service and planning for increased demand,
such as business, event venues, and federal offices.
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Digitizing narrative tariffs
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Developing a route layer
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Interpreting text descriptions of location and
generating specific GIS data layers
Resolving ambiguities in descriptions
Determining streets and roads that fall within hauler
territories
Generating a line layer for each hauler
Developing a service address layer
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Address only, no names to protect privacy
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Waste hauling conceived and regulated as both a utility and a
motor carrier
 Goal = ensure curbside trash service to 100% of WV residents
and businesses
 No unified system for identifying and mapping waste hauler
routes or service addresses
Interpret text descriptions filed with tariffs
 Tariff authority often date back for decades
 Are drawn up and executed as text documents; no maps are
required or submitted
 No consistent language or geographical boundaries used in
descriptions
 Widely varying level of detail in description section of tariff
 WV Public Service Commission does not maintain a master
map to determine if the tariff descriptions are accurate or
comprehensive
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Resolve ambiguous terms
 “side roads” –
 What defines a side road?
 How far down a side road that connects to another
road?
Resulting polygons are not related to a master data set and
can not be considered authoritative for management
purposes
 Polygons do not indicate specific roads or locations, nor
ensure that all addresses are served
 Overlaps and missing areas exist
 Local haulers sometimes make informal agreements to
resolve disputes that are not reflected in official tariffs
 WV Public Service Commission, Motor Carrier Division,
also maintains a separate system of records, known as
“blue cards” to determine route authority for waste
haulers that do not necessarily agree with tariff
boundaries
Initial description – “those points and places in Marion County, east of
I-79, that are located within a radius of five (5) miles of the intersection
between I-79 and W Va. Route 310”
Generating a waste hauler territory
polygon - example
“excluding
the following points and places: (a) those points and places that
are located to the east of Little Creek; (b) those points and places that are
located to the north of Marion County Route 76; “
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After all exclusions enumerated in the textual description were
applied, the remaining polygons represent the waste hauler
territory as described in the tariff
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After completing waste hauler territory GIS layer,
determined that polygon layers were not sufficient
Initially, an intersect operation was utilized to
select the roads and streets contained within each
waste hauler territory
A preliminary line layer was generated indicating
the streets and roads served by each hauler
Accuracy issues with the waste hauler tariff
boundaries also affect the route layer
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After reviewing the waste hauler territory
digitization process, it was determined that the
highest level of accuracy could be obtained by
mapping individual service addresses for each waste
hauler
Waste haulers are required by WV law to provide
customer lists to SWAs and SWMB to ensure that all
households and businesses comply with trash
service requirements
Addresses can be geocoded (without customer
names) to determine what locations are served by
each hauler
Currently working with test data sets for several
haulers to generate a service address data layer
Future work
Continue to develop GIS
data layers for waste
hauler service addresses
Utilize service address
data to develop accurate
route data
Utilize MCSWA GIS
data layers in the
development of new
management and
collaboration tools, such
as 3D digital city models