AREA LANDFILLS Debris is screened several times

Sorting materials by hand is still the best way, a health inspector says.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- As the railroad cars come in, the workers are there to greet them and sort through the loads.
Each day, five to six cars filled with 60 to 90 tons of construction and demolition debris (C & amp;DD) come into Lordstown Construction Recovery on Newton Falls-Bailey Road.
The pickers, as the landfill's workers are known, are searching among the pieces of wood, shingles and concrete to ensure there's nothing classified as solid waste.
It's similar to how loads of construction debris are screened at the state's other C & amp;DD landfills.
"It seems pretty primitive, but that's really the only and best way to screen those loads," said Bob Pinti of the Warren Health Department, who performs inspections of the Warren Hills C & amp;DD landfill in Warren.
Under Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulations, C & amp;DD landfills are allowed to accept only materials from construction sites -- bricks, concrete, drywall, plumbing, lumber and other building materials.
Anything else is considered solid waste and must be handled by a municipal solid waste landfill.
Tim Page, operations manager at LCR, said debris brought into the facility is inspected several times before it is buried.
"When the cars first come in, they are viewed for solid waste, with a worker actually walking across the load while it's still in the car," he said.
From there, the material is dumped into a staging area, where between one and three workers sift through the debris again.
Once that inspection is complete, he said, the material is loaded onto trucks where it's taken to the facillity's working phase, where it's inspected again by another one to three workers.
Page added that before rail cars arrive at the facility, the company bringing in the demolition debris has confirmed there's no asbestos or lead among the materials.
Ohio law states C & amp;DD landfills cannot accept those materials, which were commonly used in construction through the 1970s.
First checks
But even before the rail cars arrive at local C & amp;DD landfills, the company hauling it in has most likely conducted a screening process as well, Pinti said.
"Most of the local landfills are able to make an agreement with the generators of the debris, where the cars are screened at the point of loading," he said.
If the local landfill operators notice the loads are coming in with too many unacceptable items, the company can be told to screen better, or the load can simply be refused by the local landfill operators, Pinti said.
Page said the LCR facility, which has been operating since December, already has rejected about 20 rail cars because of too much solid waste.
Pinti notes, however, that it's almost impossible for every load of debris to be clear of items considered solid waste.
In most cases, the items are something as simple as a pair of work gloves, a child's toy or golf balls. Though not considered harmful, they are still considered solid waste, Pinti said.
If an inspector sees such materials mixed in with construction debris, they write citations against the landfill, even when correcting the violation is as simple as picking up the offending item and tossing it into a trash can. "It's a fine line sometimes," he said.
slshaulis@vindy.com