A week full of sunshine, great activities and fantastic events made WASTECON® 2015 the place to be at the end of August.
The 53rd annual WASTECON® was held in August at the fabulous Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida, and it was a smashing success!
Hosting more than 2,000 attendees, SWANA’s premiere event in the waste and recycling industry offered a week full of education, training, activities, exhibits, social events, facility tours, networking opportunities and more. Surrounded by lush greenery, running waterfalls, fabulous gourmet restaurants, fantastic pools, excellent spa services and fascinating wildlife (including alligators, turtles and koi), the Gaylord Palms was a great venue for WASTECON 2015.
Great Events Throughout the Show Kept Things in Full Swing
On Monday, August 24, technical tours and the golf tournament were available to those attendees who wanted to get started right away on the event’s activities and see more of Kissimmee and Orlando outside of the Gaylord Palms. SWANA also held its first National Solid Waste Design Competition, a student team competition to solve a “real world” problem faced by solid waste professionals. The competition aimed at providing design experience for students interested in pursuing an education and/or career in solid waste management. WASTECON attendees were able to watch teams from four universities compete for the 1st and 2nd place prizes, which were awarded at the SWANA Awards Breakfast. The first place prize of $2,000 was awarded to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team (Kevin Kung, Rajesh Sridhar and Heather Yang), while Florida Atlantic University came in second with a prize of $1,000.
Ignite WASTECON was back this year, getting attendees “fired-up” for the show just before the Opening Reception by presenting a series of five-minute talks that included just 20 slides that had to auto-advance every 15 seconds. Attendees were treated to a casual and fun atmosphere at this unique event and speakers included: Christy Hurlburt, West Coast Regional Sales Manager, Enevo, Inc. and Chester F. Phillips, Sustainability Program Coordinator, Compost Cats, Project Director, University of Arizona.
During the YP Networking and Mentoring Event, young professionals had the opportunity to connect with their peers and meet established, successful mentors, as well as learn more about SWANA and the YP Group itself. Garnering rave reviews each year, it was a great way for young professionals in the industry to kick-off their conference experience.
The highlight of all of the first day activities was the Opening Reception held in the exhibit hall on Monday evening, which officially kicked off WASTECON. At this packed event, attendees and exhibitors had a chance to mingle and talk shop in a relaxed atmosphere and explore each booth, while enjoying snacks, sweets and drinks available at the SWANA Break Zone as well as other locations throughout the hall. With a “South Florida Street Festival” theme, many people were able to not only preview the technology that companies had to offer, but also check out what they could expect to see throughout the week, and dance the night away on the customize dance floor available in the center of the hall. The atmosphere was electric as those on the show floor greeted old friends and made new ones in preparation for the week to come at this amazing venue.
At 7am on Wednesday morning, WASTECON held its inaugural 5K Fun Run/Walk at the Gaylord Palms, benefitting a great cause—Give Kids the World, a 79-acre, non-profit “storybook” resort located in Kissimmee, where children with life-threatening illnesses and their families are treated to week-long all expense paid vacations. Registration kicked off at 6:30am by the Gaylord Palms awning and more than 75 people participated in this inaugural event. Running and walking the makeshift track around the resort, participants laughed, conversed and just had a lot of fun helping out and getting in shape. Because this was a successful event, SWANA plans on making this a regular part of WASTECON every year and attendees are looking forward to repeating the experience or being a part of it in 2016.
On Wednesday night, the Florida Chapter of SWANA hosted this year’s networking event featuring Casino Night, with the proceeds also benefitting the charity Give Kids the World. Conveniently located at the Gaylord Palms in the Emerald Bay Plaza, this fabulous party featured food, drinks, music, casino games, a 50/50 drawing, prizes and more. Attendees and exhibitors alike enjoyed grilled vegetables, sandwich sliders, salad, freshly made pasta dishes, cool drink and more at the air-conditioned venue that was surrounded by casino games and fun. Blackjack, poker and craps were featured and proved to be very popular with attendees. Each person received a voucher for a free gambling chip and it was up to them to see how far they could take it. It was an exciting and successful networking event that will be long-remembered.
Together, the Fun Run/Walk and the Casino Night events raised more than $7,500 for Give Kids the World. Thanks to everyone who came out to support SWANA and the Give Kids the World through your participation and donations!
SWANA Awards Breakfast Honors the Best in the Waste and Recycling Industry
On Tuesday morning, SWANA held its annual business meeting and awards breakfast—always a highly anticipated event at WASTECON. The event not only honored outgoing officers, industry retirees and those organizations with technically and economically sound municipal solid waste management programs, but the ceremony also covered SWANA’s annual meeting points, including finances, formally introducing the new Executive Director, David Biderman, who discussed next year’s show in Indianapolis, membership growth and revisions to the organization’s by-laws. Brian Tippetts, outgoing SWANA President, started the event with a welcome and recognized the past presidents in the audience as well as the UK representative who was attending the show. He reported the organization’s highlights from 2014, noting it was one the most transitional years in SWANA’s history and called to the stage David Biderman, to chat about SWANA and its goals in the upcoming year and beyond. After noting that to date SWANA had 8,320 members, a record high for the association, Biderman pointed out that: “Recruiting new members and retaining them are my priorities as executive director.” He also gave a special shout out to John Skinner, SWANA’s retired Executive Director, who spent more than 40 years in the industry. “This organization is strong; its future is bright because of the leadership that John brought in all of us.” In addition, he noted that SWANA will host the 2017 International Solid Waste Association’s conference and trade show in Baltimore and that at the moment SWANA’s focus is on improving safety across the industry and working to get the waste and recycling industry off of the list of “most dangerous jobs in America.” He also emphasized working with the young professionals throughout the show in order to mentor them, teach them and help them understand the ins and outs of this great industry.
After Tippetts introduced the new SWANA officers, Michelle Leonard, SWANA’s incoming 2015 – 2016 president took the stage and discussed SWANA’s valuable connection to the industry, its educational offerings and its new mission to help the industry transition from solid waste management to resource management through education, advocacy and research. “Our work is going to continue as we are going to continue to engage our existing members and future members, balance the needs of both our industry and individual members, reduce the duplication of services between SWANA and its chapters, enhance the perception and image of SWANA and attract new, energetic members to get involved,” said Leonard. “We need everyone to make this happen. I want your help and participation so that we can continue to modernize and grow our organization to remain relevant to our young and long-term professionals alike.” She closed the 2015 business meeting by stating to those in the audience that SWANA needed everyone’s help to continue to modernize a “new” SWANA, be an active member, get involved and contribute, and shape the organization’s future.
Finally, SWANA’s Excellence Awards were handed to those organizations and individuals that have and continue to help change the face of the industry as well as SWANA. Winners demonstrated effective technologies and processes in system design and operations, worker and community health and safety, and successful public education and outreach programs. The 2015 awards honored 31 programs and facilities in 12 different categories, spanning many facets of the municipal solid waste industry. Award winners represent the most innovative and dynamic organizations throughout North America as judged by their peers, and SWANA was proud to recognize their accomplishments. For a full list of winners, visit https://swana.org/Awards/ExcellenceAwards/2015Winners.aspx.
WASTECON’s Multiple Show Floor Highlights Gives Attendees Networking Opportunities
During the show, WASTECON’s exhibit hall hosted a tremendous amount of attendees eager to go through the walkway and see the new and updated solutions that were being showcased at the various booths throughout the hall. From landfill technology to hauling solutions, recycling processes, management strategies and more, the hall offered more for attendees to see than ever before. In addition, special product showcases were highlighted at different booths and allowed particular vendors to put on a short presentation about their products and solutions, reaching multiple attendees at once. On the final day of the open exhibit hall, the trade show reception began on the show floor and allowed people to mingle in a relaxed atmosphere with food, drinks and good conversation. SWANA leadership walked around to say hello, get their thoughts on the show and talk shop before show hours ended.
Packed Educational Sessions Offer Great Information
WASTECON’s Safety Summit kicked off the morning of Tuesday, August 25, with Roadside Inspections led by Trooper Kevin Nelms, who gave participants tips on what to expect during random inspections on trucks and trailers. He especially highlighted the parts that were looked at, including lugnuts, tires (the biggest problem), secure load, current and correct driver’s license, no protrusions and more. He also emphasized that the driver must be paying attention during inspection just in case the trooper has questions that need to be addressed. He stressed that drivers need to know their trucks and trailers before getting on the road and how extremely important it is to perform your pre-trip inspections.
Tuesday also marked the first day of the technical education sessions. The Mega Session was the first of many informative presentations given by industry experts. Kathryn Garcia, NYC Sanitation Commissioner, spoke about the challenges that the city faced and what kind of solutions they’ve implemented to help them dramatically reduce waste and recover resources by investing in infrastructure, implementing policy and making a selection of diverse services available to residents and businesses. Some of the programs discussed included developing a zero waste program for public housing, incentivizing residents to reduce waste as well as source separating food waste in large hotels, venues, wholesalers, and manufacturers. After the initial talk, attendees enthusiastically asked Garcia questions about program implementations, ROI and more.
Wednesday’s Mega Session, Using Innovation and Technology to Transform the Waste Industry, featured speaker Nate Morris, co-founder and CEO of Rubicon Global, who discussed how technology is empowering independent haulers and recyclers to grow their businesses. He explained some of the ways technology innovations in the waste and recycling industry have the potential to revolutionize the way consumers view waste and haulers and recyclers do business. “Things have dramatically transformed and we have to move in that direction to make sure that we capture the opportunity for the industry,” said Morris.
The Safety Summit Lunch and Learn featured a very interesting discussion on the main causes of landfill, truck and composting fires, how to prevent them and the importance of not only educating your staff on it, but also those professional in the surrounding areas (like firefighters). It was a great lunch and a great talk and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the session.
On Thursday morning, the last Mega Session, Smart Trucks: New Collection Technologies, engaged attendees and panelists in a conversation about the state of technology in the industry now and in the future. Discussion topics included: the purpose of technology, when is technology too much, integrating the latest technology into your operations, planned obsolescence and much more. Moderated by Don Ross of Kessler Consulting and featuring Ken Beaver from Environmental Solutions Group, Calum Forsyth from Webaspx, Jason Gates of Compology, Chad Grecsek from the City of Deerfield Beach and Tony Romano of Sonrai Systems, this session gave attendees the information needed to run operations more smoothly, including the acknowledgement of the evolution of technology and how that affects industry processes, as well as having a standardization for describing different services, which can lead to more production, and better answers quicker and cheaper.
In addition to the Mega Sessions, technical sessions gave attendees the chance to hear tips and hands on demonstrations of problems, lessons learned, what things should be considered and additional information to contemplate and take back to their organization. Topics throughout the week included: OSHA and DOT Compliance Issues for the Solid Waste Industry, The Next Evolution of Materials Recovery, Maximizing Waste Diversion at Transfer Stations, Cost-Effective Techniques for Addressing Leachate Management Challenges, Transforming Your Recycling Facility Into a State-of-the-Art Facility, Turning Landfill Gas Monitoring Data Into Actionable Information, Future Trends in Materials Management, Challenging Regulatory Approaches to Permitting and Construction, Innovations and Efficiencies in Collection Services, A New Beginning for Waste to Energy and much more.
“WASTECON 2015 exceeded expectations for both exhibitors and attendees,” said Biderman. “We were very pleased by the crowded educational sessions, the energy on the busy show floor, and by the exceptional Mega Session participation. More than 2,000 people gathered in Orlando, and we look forward to providing an even better show in Indianapolis in August 2016!”
For more information, visit www.swana.org or www.wastecon.org.
