Orange County NC Website
<br />In 1992, the Town of Chapel Hill passed a Solid Waste Plan amendment to its <br />Development Ordinance (attachment 1, last page) that requires submittal of a solid waste <br />plan. The effectiveness of this requirement has been somewhat limited in diverting <br />materials for reuse or recycling primarily because there are no enforcement or inspection <br />mechanisms to ensure compliance with the plan once it is submitted. The plan <br />requirement has been, we believe, a useful mechanism for educating local builders, <br />architects and developers on segregation of construction and demolition materials and on <br />how to provide recycling storage space for managing materials once the structure is <br />occupied. <br />The local governments have taken no further action to regulate construction and <br />demolition wastes in order to ensure they are reduced or recycled. However we <br />understand that consideration is now being given to a county ordinance that could <br />prohibit on-site burning of wood waste. Open burning is already prohibited within Town <br />limits. The prohibition in the unincorporated areas might have the consequence of wood <br />wastes being either mulched on-site, used elsewhere or delivezed to the landfill as <br />separated clean wood wastes suitable for recycling. <br />Discussion <br />Concepts behind an ordinance re~ulatin construction and demolition waste <br />During the past year, Solid Waste Department and Town of Chapel Hill legal staff <br />developed a draft construction and demolition waste ordinance that would require -- <br />separation of construction and demolition waste wood, metal, cardboard and other <br />recyclable materials. According to this draft, enforcement of the sepazations requirement <br />would be accomplished in the following ways: <br />Generators of the material would be required to separate recyclable or reusable <br />construction and demolition materials. Generators would be subject to inspection to <br />verify materials are properly separated. Improperly separated materials would be <br />prohibited from being removed from the job site until they are properly sorted, and <br />2. The generator would be required to use. a licensed hauler to transport the materials, <br />and <br />3. Any licensed hauler of construction and demolition materials in the jurisdiction <br />regulating the materials would be prohibited from hauling improperly separated <br />materials as a condition of his/her locally-issued hauling license, and <br />4. Orange Regional Landfill could extend its penalty for inclusion of corrugated <br />cardboard in mixed commercial loads to include penalties for inclusion of other <br />designated recyclable types of construction waste such as wood, metal or drywall. <br />More research would be required to determine the exact methods and conditions for <br />licensing and regulation of the haulers and generators of construction and demolition <br />wastes. For example, we could determine if the County government could issue a single <br />license that would apply within the municipalities as well as the unincorporated areas. <br />This research could be conducted by the staff if the Owners Group and its members <br />