2014/2015 National Solid Waste Composition Study

Terms of Reference (ToR) for 
2014/2015 National Solid Waste Composition Study

1. Intellectual Property

The Crown has determined that any intellectual property arising from the performance of the Work under the Contract will vest in Canada, on the following grounds :

6.4 	Where the main purpose of the Crown Procurement Contract, or of the deliverables contracted for, is:

6.4.1 To generate knowledge and information for public dissemination.


2. Purpose

To conduct a national solid waste composition analysis, at the provincial/territorial level, for the years 2014 and 2015.  This two year study is divided into two parts.  

The purpose of Phase I is to identify available data as collected by recent waste audits performed by the publicly-owned and privately-owned  landfill operators. Also, to develop a scoping and costing document showing options for further waste audits of Phase II. 

Phase II will see additional audits conducted by the contractor in order to improve representativeness and completeness of the composition data. The audits in Phase II will include sampling, analyzing, and compiling of waste composition data, from urban and rural municipalities across Canada.   It is expected that the subject data are of the type that are either published publicly by the organizations involved, or are considered as non-confidential business information. This information will support Canada’s international greenhouse gas reporting obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).


3. Background

Environment Canada (EC)'s Pollutant Inventories and Reporting Division is responsible for Canada’s National System for monitoring, analyzing and reporting emissions and removals of greenhouse gases (GHG), in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

One key function of the Division is the annual development and submission of Canada's National Inventory Report, a mandatory obligation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report documents GHG emissions and removals from six sectors, including the Waste Sector, which accounts for emissions from the treatment and disposal of wastes.  Emission source categories under this sector include: CH4 emissions from solid waste disposal on land: municipal solid waste (MSW) and wood waste landfills; CH4 and N2O emissions from wastewater treatment; and CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions from waste incineration. 

The UNFCCC source category: methane emissions from MSW landfill sites represents roughly 80% of the total emissions from the Waste Sector and a 2.4% contribution to the national greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada’s waste model uses a first order decay equation to quantify methane generation rates for MSW landfills .  This equation, based upon the Scholl-Canyon model, has a waste quantity landfilled input and two parameters: the methane generation potential (Lo) and the methane generation rate constant (k).   The Lo is a function of the degradable organic carbon (DOC) present in the waste, which in turn is determined from the composition of the waste.  Canada’s present model utilizes three Lo’s to represent the methane generation potential for waste compositions for three respective time periods: 1941 to 1975, 1976 to 1989, and 1990 to the current inventory year.  The last comprehensive national waste composition study was prepared by Rob Sinclair and published by National Resources Canada .  This document presents the estimated waste compositions for each province, for residential; institutional, commercial and industrial (ICI); and construction and demolition (C&D) waste sources for 2002. 

It has been recognized in the recent Canadian National Inventory submissions that, due to provincial and municipal initiatives (landfill bans for organic wastes, waste diversion projects), there have been recent changes (post 2002) in the waste composition in certain municipalities, regions or provinces/territories, which will impact the national methane estimations.  The UNFCCC expert review teams (ERT) who review the National submissions on an annual basis, have highlighted this point and have recommended that Canada acts to update its waste composition data more frequently to improve the accuracy of the methane estimations from this source. 

The intention of Environment Canada (EC) is to obtain representative waste compositions of urban and rural municipalities, for each province and territory, for: residential; ICI, where the industrial portion will be addressed separately; wastewater treatment sludge, industrial sludge; and C&D wastes sources for the 2008-2014 time series. The data related to 2008 to 2013 are expected to be obtained from landfill facilities or waste agencies that have conducted such audits.  

From recent contact made with other federal and provincial government agencies, involved in waste management programs, EC understands that there have been several similar studies conducted by the municipalities within the past few years. The results of these studies would provide a sizable contribution to the data and analyses to be produced in this study. Therefore, the scope of Phase II may be influenced by the extent of available data, as determined by the EC’s Departmental Representative (DR). Please see section 5, Statement of Work, for more details.

4. Objectives

Phase I

1.	Develop a standardized generic waste characterization form to be used by the contractor based on the waste type definitions provided in the Manual on Generally Accepted Principles (GAP) for Calculation of Municipal Solid Waste System flow  and the waste breakdown based upon the 2006 IPCC Guidelines  and the 2006 Natural Resources Canada analysis3.
2.	Identify municipalities that are willing to cooperate with the study through consultations with Environment Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and individual municipalities, as well as municipalities that have already conducted such studies at their landfill sites (for obtaining their information).
3.	Acquire existing waste composition data from municipalities that have conducted such analyses in the recent past.
4.	Prepare a recommendation of a course forward for Phase II based upon: the extent of recent composition data that are available, interest from municipalities to cooperate in the Phase II audits for supplementing of the existing data, and the budget allocated for Phase II. 

Phase II:

5.	Obtain waste composition data from site level composition audits performed by the contractor at cooperating landfill sites.
6.	Obtain, through compilation, analyses and reconciliation, a representative waste composition for each province and territory.


5. Statement of Work

The contractor shall complete the following tasks:

Phase I:

Task 1: Project kick-off meeting 

Within a week from the contract award, the contractor will arrange for a project kick-off meeting with the DR, via a telephone conference, or in person if convenient, to go through the draft work plan (as included in the contractor’s proposal). The kick-off meeting serves the purpose of discussing the work plan items (scoping, methodology, timing, etc.) with EC’s DR, towards producing a finalized work plan (see Task 2 for the work plan). 

Deliverable 1: The project kick-off meeting completed.

Task 2: Produce project work plan

Within two weeks from the contract award, the contractor shall develop a detailed work plan and work schedule, based on the work plan proposed at the time of bidding, and the comments received from the DR in project kick-off meeting. The final work plan must be submitted to the DR for review and approval. 

Deliverable 2: Submit the project work plan for review. Completed any revisions requested by the DR.

 
Task 3: Develop a standard waste composition breakdown of the material types. 

Within four weeks of the contract award, the contractor shall develop a standard breakdown of waste composition (i.e., paper, cardboard, textiles, food waste, wood, etc.), for the five waste sources: residential; institutional and commercial; industrial; sludge; and construction and demolition. This standard must be based upon: the 2006 NRCan document, the requirements of the 2006 IPCC GL’s, and requirements provided in the Manual on Generally Accepted Principles (GAP) for Calculation of Municipal Solid Waste System flow  . The standard shall be sufficiently complete as to allow for an accurate determination of the DOC for each province and territory based on the requirements of the 2006 GL’s.  This composition breakdown must be used by the contractor to conduct waste composition audits for this study. The composition breakdown document (see Deliverable 3 – Technical Memorandum No. 1 mentioned below) shall be submitted to the DR for review and approval.

Deliverable 3: Submit  to the DR for review Technical Memorandum No. 1 (TM 1), which contains information on the standard waste material types, as proposed by the contractor for each waste source. Complete any revisions requested by the DR.


Task 4: Review/ update methodology for the audit

Within five weeks from the contract award, the contractor is to review the methodology as provided in the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment (CCME) document “Waste Audit User’s Manual – A Comprehensive Guide to the Waste Audit Process” (http://www.ccme.ca/assets/pdf/pn_1210_e.pdf).  The contractor shall present the results of the review with recommendations for applicability of the methodology to thisstudy to the DR for review and approval.  The contractor is to advise the DR of modifications to the methodology, if any, that would be necessary to apply this methodology to accomplish the project’s deliverables given the scope of the study.

Deliverable 4: Submit to the DR for review Technical Memorandum No. 2 (TM 2), which contains information on the waste audit methodology. Complete any revisions requested by the DR.

	
Task 5: Identify and obtain data from the organizations that have conducted waste composition studies in the past 

Within eight weeks of contract award, contractor is to obtain waste composition data from municipal and private landfill operators, for all Canadian provinces and territories, identified as having performed waste composition studies within the period 2008 to 2013. EC’s DR will facilitate access to the data by producing letters of introduction for the contractor. The contractor shall produce a summary report on the data obtained, including scope, quality and nature of data (i.e., in respect of waste sources and material types) for the DR’s review.

Deliverable 5: Submit to the DR for review Technical Memorandum No. 3 (TM 3), a summary report on data obtained from municipal and other waste organizations related to their recent waste composition audits.

 
Task 6: Identify organizations who will participate in EC waste audits of Phase II 

Within ten weeks from the contract award, and with assistance provided by EC’s DR to secure access to the sites, through letters from EC to the landfill operating entities requesting access to the sites, the contractor is to prepare a list of potential municipal and territorial landfill operators that have agreed to participate in the further audits.   The subject list is expected to include the names of 9 sites or more. A minimum of 9 sites will be selected by the DR for audit (see Task 7 for details). 


Deliverable 6: Submit a list of organizations that have agreed to participate in the Phase II audits if requested. Complete revisions requested by the DR, including seeking additional organizations. 


Task 7: Produce audit plan and schedule

Within 12 weeks from contract award, and with consideration of the information obtained through Tasks 1 to 6, the contractor shall prepare an audit plan and schedule for Phase II, for 9 sites (6 urban and 3 rural) as described below. 

The audit plan must cover field waste audits on at least six urban and three rural municipalities.  For urban settings  one municipality from each of the following geographic regions must be included: British Columbia, the prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba), Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland), and one from the territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut).  Urban municipalities are defined as having a population greater than 100,000). The rural municipalities for both provinces and territories will be defined as having populations between 1,000 and 29,999.  There must be three rural sites included in the audit plan; at least one of the rural municipalities must be from the territories. 

Deliverable 7: Submit an audit plan and schedule for Phase II, as described above. Complete any revisions requested by the DR.

Phase II:
.
Task 8: Perform winter site audits 
 
Within 23 to 31 weeks from the award of the contract, but no earlier than Jan 20th, 2015 (to exclude biases caused by the Christmas holiday period ), and no later than Feb 20th 2015, the contractor is to conduct winter audits comprising of two audit days per site using the standard methodologies developed in Phase I. 
  
Deliverable 8: Submit the completed winter site audits for the sites in the audit plan.


Task 9: Produce winter site audits report 

Within 33 weeks from the contract award, the contractor is to compile, analyze and reconcile the collected waste composition data from winter audits, and report them on a provincial and territorial basis to the DR. 

Deliverable 9: Submit to the DR for review Technical Memorandum No. 4 (TM 4), waste composition results for winter audits.. Complete any revisions requested by the DR.


Task 10: Perform summer site audits 

No earlier than June 1, 2015 and no later than August 30, 2015, the contractor is to conduct summer audits, comprising two audit days per site using the standard methodologies developed in Phase I. 

Deliverable 10: Submit completed summer site audits for the sites in the audit plan.


Task 11: Perform phone audits for the C&D sites

Concurrent with summer audits, telephone/email surveys are to be conducted. The surveys must collect waste compositions from a sample of dedicated construction and demolition landfills. It is understood that dedicated construction and demolition landfills are discontinued in Canada and that the selected sites will come from those that have been in operation for the past two decades. Hence, the selected sample size may be smaller than the one for municipal landfills (subject of tasks 8 and 10)., and per the DR’s direction. A sample size of three should be adequate for the purposes of this survey.

Deliverable 11: Submit completed telephone surveys on C&D sites


Task 12: Compilation, analysis and reconciliation of waste composition data

Within 60 weeks from the contract award the contractor shall perform compilation of the summer and winter audit data, analyze the composition breakdown and derive provincial and territorial DOC values and produce the draft final report. The draft final report shall include a description of approaches taken and methodologies used in the study, the analysis of the collected results, as converted into the weighted averaged DOCs for each waste source, at provincial and territorial levels, and the uncertainty around the derived DOC values. 

Note (1): A gap analysis is to be performed to identify wastes which could be missed during the sampling periods.  These could include such waste categories as disposed municipal wastewater sludge and/or industrial sludge or industrial wastes.  Efforts are to be made by the contractor to resolve these gaps by reviewing recent annual received waste records from the landfills, and estimating representative weight percentages for these waste types as compared to the total annual quantity of waste received by the specific landfill. 

Note (2): Contractor to provide an estimation of the uncertainty attached to the provincial/territorial compositions for both urban and rural populations for each of the five waste types. 

Deliverable 12: Submit the draft final report to the DR for comments (one electronic copy), including the assessment of waste amounts associated with gap areas (per Note 1 above), and the uncertainty assessments for urban and rural sites (per Note 2 above)


Task 13: Produce final report

Within 64 weeks from the contract award, the contractor shall incorporate the 
DR’s comments and suggested revisions in the final report and produce one electronic, and three paper copies of the final report. 

Deliverable 13: Submit the final report in one electronic and three paper copies. The deliverable is to include all work related data and calculation files, generated in the course of the contract in Excel format to the DR.