2011-219 Solid Waste - Judy Brooks for collection of Food Waste

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ORANGE COUNTY REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR FOOD WASTE AND ORGANiIC WASTE COLLECTiION. The County of Orange, N.C. on behalf of its Department of Solid Waste Management (hereinafter "County") is seeking proposals .for collection and disposal services for the County's Food Waste and Organic Waste Collection from selected businesses or other Locations in Orange County, North Carolina, including participating local governments and public school systems. 1. INTRODUCTION, BACKGROUND, AND POTENTIAL PROGRAM CHANGES- Orange County began experimenting with commercial food waste diversion in the mid 1990s, working with two local small-scale pig farmers to collect food waste from a few restaurants ahd a few Iocafi city elementary schools for cooking and feeding to their hogs. These programs were very constrained because they could accept only food waste, not wet paper or any other'organic waste', only that suitable fior cooking and feeding to pigs. Both hog farmers stopped this collection by 1998 for economic reasons. In 1999, the Co~~nty contracted with a private collector to collect and compost a wider variety of .commercial organic waste that included not only food but also other- materials such as wet paper and`floral waste that were. readily compostable. Under the current contract material is currently collected from a variety of commercial sources in Orange County, transported to a composting operation and converted to compost. Over time, the Courity expanded the program. to include a variety-of higher volume restaurants, grocery stores, institutions~and multiple stops on the UNC campus including collection of lab animal-bedding. The lower limit for collecting is-set at two tons per month per location. Average collection rate is three times per week and-receptacles are washed out as they are collected. County staff identified, contacted, recruited and educated the waste generators, established the program and responds to complaints about product quality. As of March 2011 rthere are 31 customers and collection of UNC lab animal bedding by the County- has been eliminated. The County hopes to expand to other locations around the County in the future. A. Program Data: The following- table provides a breakdown of the approximate- amounf of organic waste collected by Orange County's current Food 1Naste and Organic Waste Collection program from approximately 31 sites including grocery stores, full service restaurants, institutions, retirement homes _and other commercial enterprises. The County intends to-provide organics collection service to at least the current client base and wishes to expand the service to-include more stops. The reporting periods in the chart below are based on County's Fiscal Year (FY). The Fiscal-Year Is July 1 through June 30, for example FY 09-10 =July 1, 2009 though June 30, 2010. FiscalYear Tons-Collected _ 07-OB 1,760.57 08-09 1,702.00 09-i 0 1, 782.62 10-11 (July 10 =January 11) 1,204.20 B. Considerations for the Future: The decision to make the following changes to County's Food iNaste and Organic Waste program is per County's discretion, and is dependant upon approval of the FY 11-12 budget.