Disaster Waste Management for Governments - Kat Heinrich

1. Disaster Waste
Management for
Governments
Kat Heinrich, Rawtec
Session: Effective Construction and Demolition Waste
Management under Challenging Conditions

2. Disaster debris can:
• Overwhelm a city’s infrastructure and systems
• Impede response activities
• Harm human health, the environment and economic assets
Image credit: Martin Hunter/ Getty Images

3. Key lessons for Disaster
Waste Management
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4. Lessons for disaster waste management
Importance of:
1. Defining roles and responsibilities
2. Estimating disaster waste volumes to inform decision making
3. Determining funding and payment mechanisms
These can be addressed with planning.
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5. 2015 South Australian study findings
Green Industries SA commissioned a study,
which found that:
• There is no central coordination of DWM
activities or defined roles and
responsibilities
• Many stakeholders are involved with
managing disaster waste in SA, largely
using local government resources
• Recent events in SA have been small-
scale in terms of disaster waste
generating a few thousand tonnes of
debris
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Image credit: The Australian

6. Waste volumes across past disasters
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Location Disaster event
Reported or estimated volume of
waste (tonnes)
Data source
Australia SA 2010 Stockport Floods 2,000 1
SA 2014 Burnside severe storms > 3,000 2
SA 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires Not estimated -
Queensland 2010 Queensland floods >460,000 3
International Italy L’Aquila earthquake 1,500,000 – 3,000,000 4
New Zealand 2011 Christchurch earthquake 8,500,000 5
China 2008 Sichuan earthquake 20,000,000 6
Japan 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake > 22,000,000 7
Table reproduced from SA Disaster Waste Management Scoping Study (Green Industries SA, 2015). Data sources:
1. Rawtec estimate based on cubic metres provided by Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council
2. City of Burnside Council
3. WME, 2011
4. Di. Coma. C as cited in Brown, 2012
5. C. Brown &. M., 2012
6. Taylor as cited in Brown, 2012
7. UNEP, 2012

7. South Australian findings 2015
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• SA has the potential to face a disaster
generating debris volumes that would
completely overwhelm its system’s
infrastructure
Figure reproduced from SA Disaster Waste Management Scoping Study (Green Industries SA, 2015)

8. Defining roles and
responsibilities
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9. Defining and documenting roles and responsibilities
Why?
• Many organisations involved in DWM
• A lack of planning can lead to:
– Slow response times
– Poor management of waste issues
What?
• Define role of landowners, insurance companies,
waste organisations, councils, governments etc
• Consider how roles may change depending on the
scale of the event
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10. Key functions
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Intelligence
Subject-matter
experts &
advisors
Communications
Operational
teams

11. Intelligence
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Gather intelligence to identify waste volumes, issues
and activities
For example, provide intel on:
➢ Extent of the damage to property (feed into waste estimates)
➢ Status of waste management services & facilities
Intelligence

12. Subject matter experts and advisors
12
Consult experts to identify strategies for managing
waste.
For example, providing expertise/advice on:
➢ Capabilities of waste industry services and facilities
➢ Managing tricky waste streams (hazardous waste, animal carcasses,
etc)
Subject-
matter
experts &
advisors

13. Operational teams
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Engage teams to physically manage waste
For example, operational teams that can:
➢ Clear debris from roads
➢ Establish and operate temporary waste storage facilities
Operational
teams

14. Communications
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Communicate with the public on waste issues and
options.
E.g. Assist to develop and disseminate info:
➢ Telling the public where they can take their waste
➢ Notifying the public on key risks for handling waste
Communica
tions

15. How?
• Identify supporting agencies /organisations that can
assist across each functional area
• Assign a lead agency
• Document roles and responsibilities and integrate
into emergency management framework
• Developing complementary guidelines
• Take a highly consultative approach
• Living documents
Example: South Australia Disaster Waste Management
Capability Plan
Available for download from greenindustries.sa.gov.au
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Defining and documenting roles and responsibilities

16. Estimating waste volumes
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17. Why estimate waste types and volumes?
• Inform decision making on strategies for handling debris and waste, such as:
– Identify contractors/equipment needed
– Identify issues (e.g. lack of capacity to process waste)
– Set up interim storage facilities if needed
– What communications materials to issue to public
• Preferably develop waste calculators/methods during “peacetime” to be able to respond more
quickly
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18. How to estimate at high-level
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Metric material
composition of
building stock
Number and
extent of
damaged
buildings
Disaster
factor
Disaster waste
volumes
Kg/ dwelling:
Bricks
Concrete
Soft furnishings, etc
From demolition
data
X =
Tonnes and
Cubic Meters
(density conversion)
%
Account for
changing
weights/occurrence
of materials. E.g.
flood (heavier), fire
(lighter), etc
#
From Rapid
Assessments

19. Example
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Insights:
• Main stream is masonry waste (8.2
million tonnes)
• Possible management for masonry
waste is landfill or recycling
• Under normal operating
conditions, SA’s major landfills can
receive up to 1.7 million
tonne/year and 1.2 million
tonne/year of C&D recycling
• Potential strategies for managing
waste:
• Setting up interim storage
facilities
• Increasing operating hours of
facilities to speed up waste
processing

20. Funding and payment
mechanisms
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21. Who pays?
• Waste can be highly mixed and/or displaced making it hard to
determine owner
• Need mechanisms to work out “who pays” in this situation, e.g.
government
• Developing MOUs for cost sharing with insurers can help
Image credit: Martin Hunter/ Getty Images

22. Planning is important!
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23. Thank you
Kat Heinrich
Associate Consultant, Rawtec
Kat.Heinrich@rawtec.com.au
www.rawtec.com.au