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August Newsletter Contents
(Scroll down to read stories or click on links below.)

1. Microplastic Removal: Street Sweeping's Newest Challenge?
2. Making a Case for Aluminum Sweeper Hoppers – The Time is Now
3. City of Ellensburg, WA, Study Provides Insight About Sweeping in Semi-Arid Locations
4. This Newsletter Wins 10th Consecutive APEX Award for Publication Excellence
5. Did You Prepare Last Winter for Your Busy Summer Season?

Microplastic Removal: Street Sweeping's Newest Challenge?

The world has a plastic pollution crisis. Humans have produced more than 8 billion tons of plastic since 1950, more than half of which went straight to landfills. Only about 9% was recycled. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world's ocean surfaces. At current rates, plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050.

Florida has shown that street sweeping is by far the most cost-effective way to remove overall particulate matter (PM), with an expense per pound that is over six times lower than the next best method, catch basin cleaning. Now, with microplastic removal from the runoff stream getting the attention it deserves, it seems likely that street sweeping will be a similarly lower-cost solution to address microplastic runoff from pavement.

WorldSweeper's editor has done a deep dive into this topic; it's one that is very likely to see an increased emphasis in terms of removal via sweeping in the coming months and years.

Read about the emerging microplastics problem.

"One of the largest obstacles in producing sweepers today is holding the line on pricing given the rising cost of virtually everything in the production process. Average cost of the chassis used for sweeper mounting has increased by over 30% in just the last two years. Ditto for the cost of non-magnetic stainless steel, which has been rising by a staggering 45% per year."

So writes Mark Schwarze, son of the founder of Schwarze Industries, Inc., who has been in the business of manufacturing sweepers for 48 years.

Mark believes the time has come for the hoppers on many parking lot sweepers to be made from aluminum. Not just any aluminum, though, but from 5052- or 3003-grade aluminum, both of which have better corrosion-resistant properties than do the others. He also cites 14 years of experience following repair needs on the company's Mark I model, which was built with an aluminum hopper.

Use the link to read his well-reasoned argument, along with some cautions about both aluminum and the lesser grade of stainless steel that some manufacturers are now using.

Check out the advantages of aluminum sweeper hoppers on some classes of sweepers.

City of Ellensburg, WA, Study Provides Insight About Sweeping in Semi-Arid Locations

In 2018 the City of Ellensburg, WA, set out to investigate whether the frequency of street sweeping significantly influenced sediment accumulation in catch basins (and transport from catch basins) during the dry season in its semiarid location.

The City wanted to use the results to recommend a combination of street sweeping and catch basin cleaning procedures for achieving permit requirements for catch basin cleaning, as well as to justify a condition in its next permit for O&M procedures that would allow street sweeping practices to offset the frequency of catch basin cleanings.

The article by WorldSweeper's editor provides an overview of the study with a link to the PDF file generated for the City of Ellensburg. The results were compiled in 2020.

Check out the information.

This Newsletter Wins 10th Consecutive APEX Award for Publication Excellence

This year marked the 10th year in a row for the monthly WorldSweeper Newsletter to win an APEX Award for Publication Excellence in the category of 'Electronic Media – Education & Training. One or more aspects of the various articles, blogs and publications of our WorldSweeper.com editor, Ranger Kidwell-Ross, have received an APEX Award for an internationally record-setting 28 years in a row, having won at least one APEX every year since 1994.

An APEX Award is received if the judges determine the work product is of high enough quality to earn one, which this year meant that 485 awards were dispensed to the more than 1,200 entries. However, in the history of this international competition, no other individual or organization in the U.S. has ever won an APEX that many years in a row during the 34 years of the competition's existence.

Check out the history of WorldSweeper's Awards.

Did You Prepare Last Winter for Your Busy Summer Season?

As you probably know, our editor, Ranger Kidwell-Ross, writes an article as Director of WSA for each issue of PAVEMENT Maintenance & Reconstruction magazine. Unfortunately, for some reason, PAVEMENT's editor did not receive the article written for that issue. And, because Ranger was gone from email communication during his July vacation, he didn't learn about the situation in time for the article to be in their August/September issue. So, we decided to include it in this August WorldSweeper newsletter.

The article offers a detailed reminder of steps you might take, along with a set of BMPs for how to structure your operation in order to do so next winter. Both contractors and municipalities will find the information of interest. This is just one example of the types of information the World Sweeping Association provides in its WSA Member Updates, sent out only to its members on the 1st and 15th of each month.

Check out the information.