City of Sunnyvale Waste Characterization Report

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City of Sunnyvale Waste Characterization Report
Figure 19. Visual Overlay Showing “Cells” of Material
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Sorting of Waste Samples
Once a sample has been selected, extracted from the load, and placed on a clean tarp, it will be
sorted by hand into the prescribed material categories. (Please refer to Appendix A for the
complete list and definitions of the material categories.) Materials will be placed in plastic
laundry baskets to be weighed and recorded. Members of the sorting crew typically specialize in
groups of materials, but each is trained in the full list of components. Each crew person will
direct materials to the appropriate specialist.
The sampling crew manager will monitor the homogeneity of the material baskets as they
accumulate, rejecting items that may be improperly classified. Open laundry baskets allow the
manager to see the material at all times. The manager will also verify the purity of each material
as it is weighed, before recording the weight on the hand-sort sample form. (Please refer to
Appendix C for a copy of the hand-sort sample form.)
The waste samples will be sorted by hand until no more than a small amount of homogeneous
fine material (“mixed residue”) remains. The overall goal is to sort each sample directly into the
material categories in order to reduce the amount of indistinguishable fines or miscellaneous
categories.
Visual Characterization Procedures for C&D Loads
C&D loads will be characterized visually using the method that has been employed by the
California Integrated Waste Management Board and using a condensed version of the material
list. For these samples, the entire load of each sampled vehicle will be characterized. Once the
selected load is placed on the tipping floor, the visual estimator will perform the following steps.
Please refer to Appendix C for the visual sample form.
The steps for characterizing a load of self-hauled waste will be as follows:
Step 1: Measure load volume. After the driver has dumped the load onto the ground, the visual
estimator measures the length, width, and height of the load and records the information on
the visual sample form.
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_ 69 November 2010
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