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Draft <br /> Convenience Center operations have been stable and no major improvements have been made <br /> for two years. There is increasing demand and markets for additional recyclables that are <br /> constrained by lack of sufficient space at convenience centers and dropoff sites and management <br /> capacity.Funds are not now available to readily capitalize those center improvements that have <br /> been identified and analyzed as both being cost-effective and provided safer more efficient <br /> service. Future funding options, site improvements, locations and operational concepts are being <br /> discussed by SWAB and the Work Group and a recommendation will be brought to the Board of <br /> Orange County Commissioners (BOCC). <br /> No Transfer Station <br /> The BOCC adopted a motion in December 2009 not to construct a transfer station in Orange <br /> County for at least the next several years. (see Appendix A)The implications of that decision for <br /> each of the four local governments in the County's interlocal solid waste agreement have not yet <br /> been determined. Some inter-governmental discussions have taken place, but the governments <br /> have not finalized any collective decisions on the future destinations of waste once the landfill <br /> closes. Orange County will take the waste under its direct control to the City of Durham <br /> Transfer Station once the landfill closes. <br /> Managing MSW after landfill closure will be challenging, expensive and envirorunentally <br /> difficult and will become more so as the number and placement of landfills diminished over <br /> time. <br /> Consideration of Alternative Technolo� <br /> The SWAB, at direction of the Board of County Commissioners has reviewed various <br /> alternatives to landfilling over the past two years. In addition there has been strong citizen <br /> interest in alternative methods of waste management. In 2008,the County contracted with <br /> consulting firm, GBB to conduct a review of alternative technologies which concluded that only <br /> mass combustion waste to energy was mature enough as a technology to handle the great <br /> majority of the County's waste using a single technology and the net cost of implementing a <br /> mass burn incinerator with energy recovery would be about$102 per ton in current dollars. The <br /> analysis did review other technologies including plasma arc, large scale anaerobic digestion and <br /> refuse derived fuel plus waste to energy. The County received this report in 2008. <br /> Following the December 2009 decision not to site a transfer station in Orange County for at least <br /> three to five years,various citizens and citizen groups have urged the County to consider other <br /> alternative technologies for handling the county's solid waste and possibly other wastes such as <br /> biosolids,medical waste and other difficult to manage materials. In Apri12010 the SWAB <br /> hosted its first presentation of the plasma arc technology by inventor Dr.Louis Circeo of Georgia <br /> Institute of Technology.Future technology reviews and presentations are also planned with a <br /> report by the SWAB back to the board following completion of more comprehensive review. <br /> 14 <br />