City of Sunnyvale Waste Characterization Report

Appendix B: Study Plan
City of Sunnyvale Waste Characterization Report
This section presents the study plan as it was written prior to collecting and characterizing waste
samples.
Selection of Single-family Residential, Multifamily Residential,
and Commercial loads
Scheduled collection routes will be classified as single-family, multifamily or commercial loads.
Only loads of 85% or greater purity will be eligible for inclusion in the sampling process (i.e.,
routes that include 85% or more waste from commercial sources will be classified as
commercial). In addition, separate procedures will be developed to select loads that are from
the SMaRT Station residual waste sector and to select loads that are from the C&D waste sector.
Information has been requested from each City's waste haulers in order to establish lists of
single-family, multifamily, and commercial collection routes associated with particular sampling
days at each facility. A sampling calendar (i.e., a schedule) will be established based on the
availability of single-family, multifamily, and commercial routes on particular days.
For selected sampling days, Cascadia will work with the haulers to develop daily counts of singlefamily,
multifamily, and commercial collection routes. For each sampling day, scheduled singlefamily,
multifamily, and commercial collection vehicles will be chosen at random from eligible
vehicles arriving each day. Selection intervals for each category will be generated to allow for
random selection across each category based on daily traffic averages and known route data.
Multifamily loads from the city of Sunnyvale are an exception from this sampling plan. In the
case of Sunnyvale multifamily, a random site selection process has generated a list of 13
approved sites that will be sampled across the two sampling seasons.
The scalehouse staff will be asked to direct eligible vehicles to the sorting area. Scalehouse staff
also will be asked to place a brightly colored SAMPLE placard on the windshield of each selected
vehicle, in order to make it visible to the sampling crew (see Appendix C for examples of sample
placard). Sample placards will coded by sample type, jurisdiction, and will be uniquely numbered
for sample identification.
To insure proper training of the SMaRT Station scalehouse staff, a member of Cascadia
Consulting’s staff will be onsite for the first day of sampling. This staff member will be
responsible for delivering the proper documentation, coaching SMaRT Station staff, and
troubleshooting for the first season of characterization.
The manager of the sampling crew will have a list of the eligible routes and vehicles for each
day. When a single-family, multifamily, or commercial load is directed to the sampling crew, the
sampling crew manager will verify the vehicle against the list and will verify that the vehicle
contains the correct type of waste from the expected jurisdiction. The vehicle's entry on the
selection list will be "checked off" to record that it has been sampled. In addition, the sampling
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