Tulsa has it all! Yes, this city has options to treat its waste in Waste to Energy Facility, Material Recovery Facility and Landfills.

It is interested that most of these facilities are private. Why not? Privatization can be an option for waste management. So that, local government can be more focus on planning, development, regulation and policy enforcement.

Though, in my place it is not going to be easy because many communities in many places still depend on local government for public services. People would pay for water and electricity, sales tax, income tax and property tax. However, people may not pay for waste services because they might think waste management should have been paid by these taxes.

In Tulsa, it is very clear where the taxes money go. For example, Health Department in Tulsa will get money from Property Taxes and City Government will get revenue from sales taxes to provide public services. It is interesting that waste management fee is included in water bill. So, those who don’t pay their waste management fee will not get their water supply in. It makes sense, since water and waste are related. However, most of Tulsans are good citizens.

We have visited two facilities; Waste to Energy and Material Recovery Facility and I found them really interesting. I would say both of them could generate very good profit by processing the waste and they have been helpful for the City of Tulsa as well.

Interestingly, Material Recovery Facility does not need to pay for the waste to be recycled. In fact, they will get paid for services that they provided. Moreover, they will get more revenue by selling the sorted and recycled ones to the buyers. It is a bit different with the situations in my home island where the recycling plant needs to pay for the waste to be recycled or processed.

Waste separation is needed in MRF, but it comes simple with organic and inorganic waste. For inorganic ones they will target four or five kinds of waste that they are going to sell. These inorganic waste will come into the facility as mixed waste. Then, machines will do the rest (sorting and separation).

Automation plays a big role in MRF where the machines can separate the waste up to 94% efficiency. The conveyor belts come with magnet technology, optical technology and sieving. Facility like this may have higher initial investment. However, it is found that it helps city with waste issues and it can generate profit. Furthermore, the automation comes from mining or manufacture technology that has been developed in many places. This technology is not new at all. It is out there to be applied for solid waste management.

 To know more about how it works, you may go to their website http://www.feedmrmurph.com/

Also, you can check their video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osDD1TCBOJg