Agenda - 12-05-2011 - 9a - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

4 each single family home in each municipality and each rural home within the rural curbside route was given a second bin. The County added mixed paper and cardboard as a commodity that could be recycled and started collecting the curbside material "dual stream." Dual stream is the current system that asks residents to separate bottles and cans from all other paper products. Then in 2008 the other programs (multi-family, commercial, and government buildings) were transitioned to dual stream. Each transition in the program has increased recycling tonnage while increasing collection and hauling efficiencies. As we transition to single stream we anticipate these trends to continue and hope to inch the County closer to its commitment of 61 percent waste diversion. Urban Curbside Collection Each program will be collected as single stream and the efficiencies gained will affect each program differently. The urban curbside program will be the most noticeable change for single family residents in each incorporated area (Hillsborough, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill). The most obvious change will be the change from two 18 gallon bins at each home to one cart with wheels and a lid at each home. These carts will give residents more capacity for material, and the preparation for each resident will be much easier and convenient, because no sorting is involved or heavy lifting to the curb. Currently, the County is contracted with Waste Industries for the collection of urban curbside recycling. This contract expires June 30, 2012 which will align well with the new collection process. An RFP for a new collection contract will go out in December 2011 or January 2012 and we hope to award the bid in February or March of 2012. Due to the new single stream collection process, the per household contract cost should decrease significantly. We hope to finance the carts with this savings and pay them off within 5-6 years. To obtain the roll carts at lowest cost we will explore three options for acquisition: 1) RFP for curbside collection will include the possibility of purchasing carts through and incorporated within the collection contract, 2) purchasing the carts directly from a cart vendor through a competitive bid process, and 3) piggybacking on another governmental bid award. The program has grown to 18,300 homes between the three municipalities and recycled 3,766 tons of material in FY 10-11. The current cost to the County for this collection is $4.17 per household per month. For Fiscal Year 2011-12, Solid Waste has budgeted $931,395 for this service. One of the biggest motivations for this program change is the potential decrease in contract cost. According to the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach, many communities have saved money in contract costs after changing to single stream collection. Once we put a request for purchase out for single stream collection, we hope to get the cost down between $3.00 and $3.75 per household per month. Using the current population, if the cost is as high as $3.75 per household per month the contract cost could be as low as $823,500 per year. We have had some estimates that indicate that the cost could be $3.00 per household per month, which would bring the contract cost down to around $658,800 annually. The contract cost for urban curbside collection is likely to drop for several reasons. Right now, the vendor operates four trucks collecting a route each day. Each truck is running ten hours per day to collect. It takes ten hours because each truck fills up and dumps twice each day. The current bodies of the trucks are divided in two (paper accumulates in the back, and bottles/cans accumulate in front) and do not have the capability to compact the material. Given that two different materials need to be separated in the truck, one compartment of the truck will fill up faster than the other. For 2