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PENNTAP helps Cambria County be first with computers on the route By Barbara Hale
	With help from Penn State’s Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENN-TAP), Cambria County’s Solid Waste Management Authority (CCSWMA) has become the first in the state to adopt handheld computers to track recycling operations in the field.   Tanya McCoy-Caretti, CCSWMA executive director, said, “Our drivers have been using a palmtop computer on their recycling pick-up routes for about six months now. And we figure that, from the data collection and data entry standpoint, we save at least 12 hours per week.”   By McCoy–Caretti’s calculations, that means that they have already saved well over the original $1,000 hardware and software cost and are reaping, as well, increased productivity, more accurate records on the quality of their recyclables and improved ways to track and target their educational activities.   Cambria County offers 10 collection sites to recycle newspaper, clear glass and metal. Residents bring their recyclables to these sites, and once each week, Michael Lieb, CCSWMA collections supervisor, comes by with a truck to pick them up. He collects only one type of material on a given day and, before he had the palmtop computer, used a pencil and paper to record at each site the amount and condition of the load before taking it to the Indiana County Materials Recovery Facility weigh station for processing. In those days, when Lieb got back to the office after making the rounds on his route, he had to spend an additional 35 minutes or more each day re-entering the collected data in the office computer.   “My thought was UPS has a handheld data collection device,” McCoy–Caretti said. “Pepsi delivery personnel do, too. So the technology has to be out there. And that’s when I went to Ralph [Caretti] at PENNTAP.”   Ralph Caretti, a PENNTAP senior technical specialist based at Penn State’s University Park campus, also just happens to be Tanya’s brother-in-law. In his job at PENNTAP, Caretti provides computer advice and direct hands-on assistance, free of charge, to help Pennsylvania businesses and industries improve their competitiveness. PENNTAP also sometimes provides help for nonprofit organizations.   “It took only about a week to find a suitable palmtop, a Casio Cassiopeia, that could do the job and to pick database software, structure it, write an application and then teach the system to Lieb, who picked up on it right away,” Caretti said.   Lieb added, “For somebody like me who’s not a computer whiz, I found it to be relatively simple. It’s very similar to the Windows program I was using in the office. So it was just a matter of instead of using the mouse, just using the stylus; just touching the screen.”   Now, at the collection sites, Lieb simply pulls down a menu on the palmtop’s screen and points to the name of the site, the material he is picking up, the amount and then notes any contamination. At the end of the day, when he returns to the office, he places the palmtop in its cradle and it automatically downloads the data into the office computer.   With the data in the office computer, McCoy–Caretti can double check the records supplied by the weigh station when it sends payment for the recyclables. Metal recyclables contaminated with plastic, for example, bring a lower price than a clean load. More accurate contamination records make for more accurate payments, she said.   McCoy–Caretti notes that within the last three weeks they’ve also realized that the system has other benefits.   “When the driver is out there collecting material from 10 different sites, he may see that at one site, for example, the glass bin is contaminated with a lot of plastic. Or at another site, the paper in the bin is wet,” McCoy–Caretti said. “With that information over a period of time, I can target my educational efforts. I know that I need to get into the local newspapers in those two areas and reinforce the fact that plastic cannot go into the glass bin and the paper has to be kept dry. So it actually shows me where I am going to need to spend my educational dollars.”   McCoy–Caretti used grant money to fund the palmtop project.   “Pennsylvania’s recycling programs are legislated under Act 101, which has under Section 902 monies specifically appropriated for capital equipment expenses for developing recycling programs,” McCoy–Caretti said. “The grants are 90 percent funded by the state, with a 10-percent match. So 90 percent of the $1,000 cost of the device and software was refundable, and our 10-percent match was made from the use of my time in helping Ralph with the development of this project.”   The CCSWMA executive director described the new program at the State Data Management Workshop, held in November for representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania. As a result, other communities throughout the state have indicated interest. Caretti said he is happy to provide data and background on the Cambria County pilot program.   PENNTAP, the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program, is a federal, state and university partnership for economic development.
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu