The City of Hilliard Sustainability Plan

Hilliard Sustainability PlanECON. EXECUTIVEENERGY DEV. &SOCIAL SUMMARY WASTE EQ.REDUCTIONMeasureThe average yearly electricity usage measured in kilowatt-hoursserves as an indicator to measure the effectiveness of energy conservationpractices and the implementation of renewable resourcesby Hilliard residents. According to AEP Ohio’s Manager of RegionalDistribution Center Operations, the average Hilliard resident consumesapproximately 800-1000 kilowatt-hours per month. 4 Usingthis information, the average per capita electrical consumptionin Hilliard is 9,600-12,000 kilowatt-hours. The estimated amountof carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour is 2.02, meaning the averageHilliard resident produces approximately 20,200 pounds of carbondioxide every year. 5DescriptionAEP Ohio creates and manages the data associated with Hilliard’selectricity consumption. AEP provides energy calculators on theirwebsite which help giv e customers an idea of their personalenergy consumption. These calculators include an Online EnergyCheckup (helps manage home energy use and costs), ApplianceCalculator (provides information on the operational costs for appliances),and the Lighting Calculator (shows how much money canbe saved by switching to compact fluorescent bulbs). 6 City officialscan obtain monthly and yearly information from AEP to measure ifresidents are increasing or decreasing their electricity bills. Usingthe calculators mentioned above, residents can begin to track theirelectricity consumption themselves.Per capita electrical consumptionBackgroundSending all waste generated by a community to regional landfillsis no longer a cost-effective or environmentally responsible behavior.Though landfill regulations are designed to protect water resources andcurtail impacts on air and human health, reducing the amount of waste thatultimately ends up in landfills has become a priority for many communitiesfor multiple reasons.Landfills require a large amount of space for operation, and communitiesoften consider them undesirable as neighbors. The final dumping site forHilliard’s waste is the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) landfill,which is located on approximately 395 acres of land immediately west ofInterstate 71 in Grove City and is already Franklin County’s highest point ofelevation. 7 The landfill had 26.9 years of remaining capacity as of 2011. 8 Effortsin Ohio to remediate and retrofit old landfills for new uses have provento be difficult and, sometimes, dangerous. 9 Attempts to remediate landin Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, and use it for large commercialdevelopment have led to the build-up explosive gases and the leaching ofcontaminated liquids into local streams. These problems have led to permittingconfrontations with the Ohio EPA, and businesses have subsequentlyclosed and left the new commercial district. 10,11Further, the cost of placing waste in a landfill is increasing. In 2010, Hilliardsigned a three-year contract with Rumpke Waste Removal & Recycling,switching from the previous service provider, Local Waste Services. Thethree-year contract provides a per-month, per-household charge of $14.10for the first fiscal year of the contract, $14.45 for the second, and $14.81 forthe third and final year. 12 Each year also includes a 30-cent per householdbilling fee. Though Rumpke is responsible for providing waste removal forHilliard residents, the company uses the SWACO landfill in Franklin County.SWACO increased its in-district solid waste rates by $3.00 per ton in 2011,and an additional $3.00 per ton beginning on January 1, 2012. 13 Lookinginto the future, the use of alternate landfills would require increased funds12