Question: We are looking for some tips and suggestions for dealing with waste disposal. We have two wastewater treatment facilities in our area, and each one has unique requirements, rules and rates. One, with a lower rate per gallon, requires sampling of the waste prior to disposal, and we have been turned down on several occasions. The hours at this facility are Monday through Friday only. The other facility is much higher in its rate, but is open seven days a week and has no sampling requirements. What are some ways that we can handle these situations?
Answer: Waste disposal issues have become the most prevalent topic of discussion in our industry over the past year. PROs are completely subservient to the wastewater treatment plant in terms of dump fees, hours of operation and whether they will/will not accept portable restroom waste. We believe that communication and education are the keys to this dilemma.
Why the concern over portable restroom waste?
The waste from our industry is more concentrated than that of septic tanks, which contain a large percentage of water as compared to waste. Our waste contains high levels of BODs (biological oxygen demand) such as phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen and zinc. Zinc can kill the “good bacteria” that breaks down the waste in the wastewater treatment process. These concentrated levels of BODs “shock” the treatment system. This is why some treatment facilities will sample the contents of the route service truck prior to allowing it to dump.
There has also been a longtime misconception about the “blue chemicals” used in our industry. Formaldehyde use in our deodorizers has been a longtime “negative” in acceptance of our waste. Today a vast majority of PROs use nonformaldehyde deodorizers, and this is a fact that can be used in the education process with wastewater officials. Even formaldehyde-based deodorizers today have a maximum concentration of 37%. This also dispels the misconception that formaldehyde deodorizers are the same as they were many years ago when the concentrations were significantly higher.
Another educational note is that deodorizers are used in a ratio of 4-6 ounces per five gallons of water. Further, after a week, the components are completely broken down, hence the need for once-a-week service.
Suggestions for wastewater plants that require waste sampling
One of the primary measurements that most plants use to assess or evaluate portable restroom waste is pH. Simply stated, this scale measures the acidic or basic nature of a solution. A pH of 7.0 is considered neutral and a range of 6.5-7.5 is optimal for the microbes in the treatment plant to thrive and to break down the waste. If the load is too acidic, lime can be added to raise the pH to acceptable levels. Conversely, if too basic, muriatic acid or sulfuric acid can lower the pH.
We recommend PROs do not get into this practice unless it becomes a constant barrier to you disposing at a certain location due to pH concerns. A pH meter and specialized training on the use of these chemicals is needed, and the acids are quite caustic.
As a result of the COVID pandemic, portable restroom waste today is more diluted than it was prior to that time due to the abundance of sinks and hand-wash stations. These additional sources of water decrease the percentage of portable restroom waste in the service tank.
For plants that require sampling of the load before disposal, here are a few tips that will help to further dilute the waste:
- Where feasible, try to include a holding tank on the daily route. Holding tanks have a much higher water ratio, which will dilute the contents of the waste in the truck.
- At special events, if there is a hand-wash/sink area, use more than one truck to pump these units. Each truck will then have more water in the tank than total portable restroom waste.
- In the yard, use holding tanks for smaller pumping vehicles to dump into. This waste may be in the tank for several days before being pumped up by a larger route truck and taken to the disposal facility. During this time, the waste further breaks down and begins to decompose.
Subcontract for waste disposal and avoid trips to disposal plants
Some PROs have large tanks (5,000 gallons or so) in the yard where all trucks dump into at the end of the day. These tanks are then pumped by a septic or pumping company on a periodic basis and these subcontractors dispose of the waste.
This strategy eliminates the need for dealing with wastewater treatment plants and, in general, allows route trucks to stay on route all day since each truck begins the daily route with an empty tank. You need to weigh the cost of subcontracting this task against the expenses of time, labor and your cost of disposal at the treatment facility.
Dewatering
While this option has many rules and regulations we cannot cover in this short column, the basic idea is that a giant roll-off type unit is installed on the company yard and all waste is unloaded into this unit. The waste will separate and the effluent, or liquid waste, can be pumped and transported to a treatment plant or, better yet, per local governmental and environmental permitting and compliance, discharged into the sewer system with a meter recording the gallons of liquid discharged. Expect frequent inspections by environmental officials. Compliance must be a top priority.
Education and communication with wastewater and environmental personnel
There are several misconceptions about portable restroom waste today and PROs need to be armed with the facts in order to educate those in both the disposal and the environmental arenas. Here are a few suggestions:
- Develop a good business relationship with wastewater treatment personnel. Be on a first-name basis with key contacts. Share information with them as needed. New articles and studies about disposal in our industry could be very effective.
- Consider joining an industry association where additional information and support can be obtained throughout the membership. The Portable Sanitation Association International, National Association of Wastewater Technicians and the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association are prime examples. Local homebuilder associations are also valuable organizations as they deal with local governmental and environmental officials.
- Consider trying to obtain business from your local city or municipality for their events, parks, public spaces and building projects. You will be interacting with local officials, and if problems arise at the local wastewater treatment facilities in terms of accepting waste, your company can leverage those personal relationships and the fact that the waste came from the city or municipality in which the treatment facility is located.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Waste disposal is one of the areas in which PROs have limited control, but rates, hours and days of operation, and access in general greatly affect your operation. Many wastewater plants are old and reaching capacity. Portable restrooms are much more accepted by the general public and many more are in use today than when some of these aging plants were constructed.
The general population has also increased over the decades and household sewage is now considerably higher in volume. There are no easy answers to this situation; however, education and communication are the best strategies to adopt in dealing with disposal issues.
