By Rob Watson, Principal, Upland Road LLC. Founder & President SWEEP Standard
The SWEEP (Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol) Steering Committee is pleased to announce the formation of national standard development committees for the SWEEP Industry Standard and the SWEEP Municipal Standard.
Although there are zero waste and sustainable materials management certification standards for individual facilities or companies, there are none governing the environmental performance of municipal solid waste programs or the companies that perform the services supporting these programs. It is this gap that SWEEP is intended to fill.
Congratulations to the Founding members of the SWEEP Industry and SWEEP Municipal Committees:
| Industry Committee | Municipal Committee | ||
| Member | Organization | Member | Organization |
| Neil Bolton | Blue Ridge Services | Jeff Azano | Wellesley MA |
| Bob Cappadona | Casella | Ms. Kim Braun | Culver City, CA |
| Will Flowers | Winter Brothers | Jordan Fengel | Central Texas Resource Conservation & Development, Inc. |
| Kerry Getter | Balcones | Roger Guzowski | CT Resource Recovery Association |
| Bill Keegan | Dem-Con. Com | George Payba | Los Angeles |
| Susan Moulton | Waste Management | Annabel Short | New York |
| Robert Nothoff | LAANE | Annie White | Washington DC |
The requirements of the Industry and Municipal Standards will be complementary and reinforcing. For example, a solid waste company receives credit for providing service to a SWEEP Certified municipality; conversely, municipalities receive credit for contracting with SWEEP Certified solid waste companies.
The SWEEP Industry and Municipal Standards have identical structures, each covering the same 4 Performance Categories:
- Sustainable Materials Management Policies (SMMP)
- Waste Generation and Prevention (WGP)
- Solid Waste Collection (SWC)
- Post-Collection Processing and Disposal (PCPD)
In the coming months SWEEP will be soliciting experts to participate in the technical committees, which encompass the Performance Categories and the underlying Key Performance Indicators for which the credits are awarded.
The Standards Committees support the Steering Committee by managing the technical standard development process. Standards Committee members are experienced and respected in their respective fields.
The role of the SWEEP Industry and Market Standards Committees is to:
- Guide the development of standards for their respective markets;
- Ensure balance across the four Performance Categories;
- Apply a comprehensive and integrated approach to managing waste from the Municipal Program perspective and the Industry Services perspective;
- Ensure the diverse and comprehensive membership in their Performance Category technical committees;
- Manage the timely flow of work from the technical committees;
- Oversee the development of the appropriate support collateral (training, manuals, accreditation tests, etc.) for the relevant standard.
SWEEP anticipates that completed draft standards will be available for public review and comment in the March or April of next year. After incorporating public comment, the SWEEP Standards will be piloted with a representative sample of companies and municipalities starting in the middle of 2018.