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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: December 5, 2011 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. q - a <br />SUBJECT: Conversion of Rec cling Programs to Sin le Stream (Comingled) Collection <br />DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management, <br />County Manager <br />PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Memorandum to County Manager <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste <br />Management, 919-968-2885 <br />Michael Talbert, County Manager, <br />919-245-2153 <br />PURPOSE: To receive from County staff information regarding planning for implementation of <br />single stream recycling and to provide guidance to staff with regard to proceeding to <br />implementation. <br />BACKGROUND: The Board of County Commissioners and the Towns have for several years <br />have expressed interest in moving to single stream recycling collection. The Solid Waste <br />Planning Work Group, the Solid Waste Advisory Board and various individual County residents <br />have also advocated this change. <br />Consistent with the adopted Fiscal 2011/12 Solid Waste Budget, Orange County recycling <br />programs are now planned to implement single stream recycling by July 2012. This change <br />would be implemented for all County recycling programs -Rural Curbside, Urban Curbside, <br />Solid Waste Convenience Centers, Multi-family, Commercial, Schools, etc. <br />Single stream recycling is the practice of comingling all recyclable materials (paper and <br />containers) together for collection rather than separating containers .from paper (normally <br />referred to as dual stream). There may be some slight variations among programs as <br />discussed in the attached memorandum to the County Manager. <br />An example of the efficiencies gained by the switch to single stream can be best illustrated by <br />the expected reduction in contract cost in the Urban Curbside program. The current cost to the <br />County for this collection is $4.17 per household per month resulting in a Fiscal Year 2011-12 <br />budget of $931,395 for this service. Once the County switches to single stream collection, staff <br />hopes to reduce the cost down to between $3.00 and $3.75 per household per month. Using <br />the current population, if the cost is as high as $3.75 per household per month, the contract cost <br />