Although fuel prices declined during last fall and winter, they have been inching back upwards lately. Generally speaking, that trend can be expected to continue in the coming years.

That was a point driven home by Jamey Holland, a risk management consultant for Kansas City, Mo.-based FCStone Trading, during Tuesday’s “Take Charge of Fuel Prices: Effective Risk Management” conference session.

To illustrate his point, Holland cited studies predicting that global energy demand will increase by 44 percent over the next 20 years and that global oil demand will rise to 107 million barrels per day over the next two decades. Global demand is currently around 84 million barrels a day, he said.

Holland also noted that one study projects 2 billion cars to be on the road worldwide in 2030, up from 812 million automobiles just seven years ago.

Toss in the fact that the number of refineries in the United States is declining, and you have a climate ripe for soaring and volatile fuel prices, Holland said.

So, what’s a fleet to do? Hedge, Holland said.

For one thing, fleets should consider buying call options, which function very much like insurance policies, Holland said. “It’s like a policy against higher fuel prices,” he said.

The fleet pays a premium, and if fuel prices rise above a pre-determined level, the increase is covered by the call option. If prices decline, then the fleet purchases gas for a lower price, and there is no claim on the policy, Holland explained.

Other hedging options include purchasing heating oil futures or swaps, Holland added, with the hope that gains in those investments will help offset increased diesel fuel expenditures.

In today’s troubled economy, companies are holding onto equipment longer and delaying the purchase of new devices. However, keeping equipment too long is an almost surefire to spend too much money, Dave Dawson, CEO of Houston-based AssetNation, told attendees of a WasteExpo conference session on Monday.

Dawson’s remarks came during the “Leveraging End-of-Life Assets to Improve Cash Flow in a Struggling Economy” session. His company has sold more than $1 billion in assets on behalf of Fortune 1000 companies.

Noting the intention of some waste haulers to drive their trucks “until the wheels fall off,” Dawson said such an ownership strategy can be financially harmful as maintenance costs soar and the re-sale value of the equipment plummets.

“There is really a better way to manage the end-of-life asset,” Dawson said. “At some point, it costs more to maintain than the monthly cost of new equipment.”

Larger fleets often go about answering the question “When is it time to trade out my equipment?” in a “very programmatic way,” Dawson added.

These larger companies keep an eagle eye on life cycle costs - carefully keeping track of acquisition costs, maintenance expenses, the costs of idle equipment, risk-management expenses and disposal/exit costs - to best calculate the right time to get rid of a piece of equipment.

For an asset management program that seeks to get rid of equipment at the right time to be successful, the following dynamics need to be in place, according to Dawson:

* The program must be a strategic priority.

* The program must have an executive sponsor.

* It needs to be rolled out uniformly across a company.

* It requires ongoing management and reinforcement.

* The program must have the ability to measure progress toward financial goals.

* And, it requires frequent communication across multiple levels of a company.

However, even if you do drive your truck “until the wheels fall off,” you will still likely find a buyer of some sort, Dawson added.

(Below is an editorial penned by Waste Age’s Editorial Director Bill Wolpin. It will in appear in Waste Age’s May issue.)

So, it has come to this: Even garbage is worthless. That remark was made by a Beijing businessman who buys and sells recyclables. After decades of delusions about recycling being the simple answer to our solid waste problem, the markets for the valuable commodities rescued from trash cans have evaporated like our 401(k)s.

It’s too easy to blame the Chinese — after all, because they bought more than half our paper exports for decades, some of us began to believe that money grows on trees. Now, communities that balanced some of their recycling programs’ costs with income from selling recyclables are being rudely reminded that they are in a business where their products’ prices can fluctuate, sometimes wildly.

When it comes to our garbage habit, the Chinese are our enablers. Their hordes of cheap products made us feel rich. The low prices magnified our buying power, and like magic, our dollars appeared to be growing. Who can turn down a $30 DVD player? If you’re standing in a landfill, you can see how many would rather buy a new one instead of fixing an old one.

Over time, our waste relationship with the Chinese became symbiotic. They made products we could afford — which softened the blow from years of stagnant wages — and, in return, we flooded them with dollars, which fueled their economy to unprecedented heights. Eventually, we performed a magic trick of our own by turning their goods into garbage, some of which they bought back from us, fueling our recycling programs. They were happy. We were happy (trade deficit aside), and few questioned much, that is until our economy — and the world’s — became unglued.

The recycling market is an insignificant part of our economic engine, but its story is a microcosm of the plague that has infected the larger body politic.  Our financial houses were built out of a deck of cards full of jokers that would have made Houdini blush. We allowed ourselves to be convinced that we were the wizards, the dollars we invested were multiplying, and the money loaned to us for houses or credit card purchases confirmed our wise decisions. In the meantime, the illusion of wealth is over, and we have to live with the reality we created. And, at least for a while, garbage will remain garbage.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has a special membership offer that is available until May 31. Here’s the deal: if you join the organization before that date, you will also receive a free Technical Division membership. Click here for details and to sign up.

• Tomorrow isn’t just the dreaded due date to file your tax returns. It’s also the last day to submit applications for academic scholarships developed by the Women’s Council of the Environmental Industry Associations.

The council has established an educational scholarship program for employees of the National Solid Wastes Management Association and the Waste Equipment Technology Association. Dependents of employees also are eligible. Applicants must be seeking undergraduate or graduate education with intent to pursue studies that will promote a career in the environmental industry.

The council will award $2,500 scholarships for the 2009-2010 academic year.

A study noting that people don’t want to see landfills built in their communities is about as shocking as revelations that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens used steroids.

Still, a recent survey published by the Saint Consulting Group has to be at least somewhat dismaying to the solid waste industry.

The report found that landfills are the most unpopular type of real estate development in the United States. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed said they would oppose the construction of a landfill in their community. Casinos and aggregate quarries were next on the most unpopular list, with disapproval rates of 77 percent and 62 percent, respectively. (And here I always thought the American dream was to live next to a quarry.)

If there is good news to be found in the results — and I’m admittedly reaching here — it’s that the landfill disapproval rate has been higher in previous surveys, although this year’s rate increased one percentage point from the 2008 report.

So, what are landfill owners and operators to do? Frankly, it’s hard to imagine the overall national attitude about landfills ever dramatically changing. However, it’s quite possible for an individual landfill to develop good relationships with the surrounding community.

In “A Balancing Act,” a feature in the upcoming April issue of Waste Age, Joe Benco and Dave Call of Republic Services outline the steps that those developing a new landfill or expanding an existing site can take to develop a positive relationship with the neighbors of the facility. In short: get the public involved early and often. The Indiana landfill profiled in the story created a pheasant habitat and undertook several other initiatives to build the trust of the local community. Landfills may not receive the heartiest initial welcome from the surrounding area, but they can become trusted and valued neighbors. And they should make every effort to do so.

At Waste Age, we’d like to detail more of these kinds of landfill success stories. Please e-mail me at sursery@wasteage.com if you have an interesting tale to tell.

The following firms recently joined the Washington-based Waste Equipment Technology Association: Grapevine, Texas-based Scott Distribution LLC (dba Scott Containers SPC Capital Inc.) and Phoenix-based Leadpoint Business Services.

After years of virtual dormancy, the waste-to-energy (WTE) sector may be on the verge of something of a renaissance. And, ironically, it is rising environmental concerns that may spark the industry’s rebirth.

More than a decade ago, construction of WTE plants came to a standstill as cheap tipping fees and fuel prices increased the appeal of landfilling waste. The opposition of environmentalists and residents concerned about the plants’ emissions also played an important role in halting the industry’s momentum.

However, in early March, a bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators sent a letter to Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate energy committee, urging him to include WTE in an upcoming bill’s definition of “renewable energy.” The bill would establish a national renewable energy standard. The letter writers include such high-profile legislators as Chuck Schumer of New York, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

“It would only help us meet our clean energy production goals to think broadly abut what types of energy are considered renewable, understanding that stringent environmental standards must remain paramount in any such assessment,” the letter states. (To view the letter, visit the Integrated Waste Services Association’s Web site at www.wte.org.)

And in a report released in a January, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum listed WTE as one of eight renewable energy sources that will provide a “meaningful contribution” to a “future low-carbon energy system.” (To view the report, called the “Green Investing Report,” visit www.weforum.org.)

According to a Wall Street Journal article in late 2008, proposals for new or expanded WTE plants have still met with public opposition due to environmental concerns. However, the industry maintains that the facilities now use much more stringent emission control technologies. If indeed that is the case and enough of the public can be convinced, the WTE industry could be on the verge of playing an invaluable role in tackling the problems of global warming.

You know an odor has to be bad to make garbage workers nauseous. But that’s exactly what happened recently on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. According to KITV-TV, the victims were two three-man crews working in the towns of Puhi and Hanapepe. Paramedics were called to treat the six workers, and one had to be taken to a local hospital.

“Although we don’t yet know the source of the foul odor, we want to remind the public not to put any hazardous waste in their trash for curbside collection,” Troy Tanigawa of Kauai’s Public Works Department told KITV-TV. “Proper disposal methods should be used.”

Think rap and waste education don’t mix? You are wrong. So very, very wrong.

The employees of the West Palm Beach Sanitation Department have produced a rap video as part of their effort to educate the public about their services.

We can’t wait until these guys team up with the Dust Brothers.

(Link courtesy of the NSWMA’s Environmentalists Every Day blog.)