2021 Impact Report
2021 COMMUNITY IMPACT REPORT
Our Sustainable Future
At SWACO, we believe our region’s economic future is tied to sustainability. Central Ohio is home to hundreds of businesses that rely on recycled materials for their operations. SWACO is committed to helping our region realize its economic potential by attracting and supporting businesses, jobs and investments around recycling and sustainability. Our sustainable future is tied to our ability to leverage our waste stream — and SWACO can lead the way.
Green Economy Business Park
Our Green Economy Business Park is a key part of our vision to build a more economically and environmentally sustainable future for our region. We have proposed building this business park on 350 acres of SWACO-owned land, where we have audacious and ambitious plans that will bring together the recycled materials supply chain through research, technology and advanced manufacturing through a capital investment of $350 million to $500 million. Our models and projections show that the site, once developed, could create between 2,000 and 3,500 manufacturing jobs, producing between $1.6 million and $4.2 million in local tax revenues for the local community. If approved, the Green Economy Business Park will cement the Central Ohio region as an economic leader in the emerging market for recyclables and sustainable manufacturing.
Community Benefits of Public-Private Partnerships
At SWACO, we are committed to creating innovative solutions and protecting public resources. That includes our local environment. But it also includes our public funding.
Our initiatives collect and treat landfill gas, converting enough methane to heat more than 13,000 homes in our region every year. We are working to transform a former landfill, now closed, into Columbus Solar Park, a 173-acre solar farm that is slated to begin operations in 2023 and that will produce enough energy to power more than 5,000 homes in Central Ohio every year. And we are working on plans for a modernized materials-recovery facility that will couple private-sector operational expertise with public purchasing power to invest in our recycling future. Partnering with a private company will allow us to stabilize sometimes-unpredictable recycling costs while meeting the needs of our rapidly growing region.
Those projects are meaningful, but we could not do them alone. For each, we have partnered with private companies who bring innovation, experience and financial investments to bear. Those partnerships have allowed us to dream big — and to offer financial benefits to our community.
Residents and businesses pay for waste disposal through tipping fees; our public-private partnerships have given us the room to keep those fees stable. Not only has SWACO not raised tipping fees since 2012 — we’ve lowered them.
And there is much more we can do in the future.
Almost 1 million pounds of food waste arrives at our landfill each day, making food the single largest source of landfill material. Dealing with food waste in a more sustainable way is our best opportunity to meet our ambitious diversion goals. SWACO is researching an opportunity for a public-private partnership for a composting facility to serve our region and to cut in half the amount of food waste entering our landfill.
The benefits of a regional curbside composting program are vast: Not only would this program reduce the materials going into our landfills, it would transform waste into a valuable, nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be used by communities, businesses and residents. Through the right partnerships, we can help Central Ohio’s food waste become part of the circular economy, too.
450,000
The projected number of additional residents moving to Franklin County by 2050.
600,000 tons
The additional amount of waste those residents will generate each year.
83% of Central Ohioans are concerned about the amount of food wasted each day.
78% of residents support a curbside food waste collection program.
Entrepreneurs
Innovation is at the heart of what we do at SWACO: We are constantly searching for new ways to manage our region’s waste stream. In October 2020, we partnered with Rev1 Ventures, a Columbus seed-funding venture capital firm, to identify innovative solutions to Central Ohio’s waste stream issues. Working with Rev1, we have identified three focus areas to try and reduce the amount of food and other waste entering our landfill:
- Prevention: Reduction methods that reduce the volume of waste
- Rescue: Redistributing excess food to feed people
- Recycling: Repurposing food waste as energy, agricultural supplements, and other products.
Our partnership with Rev1 allows us to connect with startups, entrepreneurs and other innovators who can reduce or divert food and other waste through reuse, recycling and composting. In 2022, our partnership with Rev1 will evolve to focus on textile waste and recycling and will help us continue to build a more sustainable future for our region as it grows.
1 million pounds
The amount of Central Ohio food waste that ends up in our landfill each day.
Carbon Emissions Management Plan Update
A circular economy and investments in waste diversion and recycling are only part of our path to a sustainable future. SWACO, its partners and the Franklin County community are taking critical steps to reduce our region’s collective carbon footprint, limiting our impact on climate change. SWACO has adopted a comprehensive strategy, the Carbon Emissions Management Plan, to reduce carbon emissions 64% by 2032. Our goal is aligned with the International Paris Accord, which aims to limit global average temperature increases to 1.5°C. SWACO’s plan addresses landfill gases, our vehicle fleet and equipment, energy use and waste-management practices at all our facilities. We are committed to “walking the walk” when it comes to sustainability: And our carbon emission reduction goals prove it.
We are making good progress:
- Our facilities are now powered 100% by renewable energy; building energy emissions have been reduced by 99%.
- Waste-reduction efforts have resulted in 57% fewer deliveries to SWACO’s administrative offices and a 52% overall reduction in paper usage.
- Community Waste Reduction Grants reduced approximately 1,405 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and diverted more than 4,800 tons of food and other material from the landfill in 2020.
- Our residential drop off recycling program diverted more than 15,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the landfill.
- Our partnership with Aria Energy to capture methane gas, treat it, and turn it into usable energy provided more than 13,000 homes with clean energy, removing more than 14,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.
100%
The amount of energy that comes from renewable sources to power SWACO’s facilities.
2022 and Beyond
SWACO’s sustainability goals have evolved over time to meet the needs of our growing region and our warming world. Our strategic plan is focused on diverting materials from the landfill through recycling and reduction, doubling down on clean energy, and investing in processes, people and facilities that will help our region’s circular economy continue to thrive. These efforts will continue through 2022 and beyond, as we help position our region as a leader in innovation and as a great place to live, work, and succeed.
SWACO 2021 Impact Report
Letter from SWACO's Board of Trustees Chair
Meet Our New Executive Director
Financial Report
Managing the Waste Stream
Increasing Diversion
Community Education & Engagement
Our Sustainable Future
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio
4239 London Groveport Road
Grove City, OH 43123
Phone: 614-871-5100
Email: info@swaco.org