Orange County NC Website
ATTACHMENT C <br /> DENR CONTRACT NO.5633 <br /> Proiect Description: <br /> Orange County Solid Waste Management now provides curbside recycling by County employees to about <br /> 13,700 homes in the unincorporated areas of Orange County on a bi-weekly basis using a two(or more) <br /> bin system where all bins are now single stream. We converted all collections to single stream July 1, <br /> 2012 and curbside program participants continue using bins biweekly.Materials are now collected in <br /> manual trucks but the County is considering conversion to semi-automated trucks scheduled for purchase <br /> later in FY 2013-14. These trucks will have bin and cart service capability. They may be delivered in <br /> early FY 2014-15 to facilitate conversion to carts. <br /> Materials are returned to the Orange County landfill's recycling processing area and dumped on a <br /> processing pad where,as time permits,larger sized or obvious contaminates are removed that were not <br /> initially rejected by collectors at the curb. Other non-recyclable materials such as non-bottle plastics, <br /> especially bags,are also removed as time permits.Materials are then consolidated into walking floor <br /> tractor trailers and destined for the Sonoco MRF in Raleigh NC.There it will be processed into <br /> commodities and sold.Alternative markets for single stream materials may be reconsidered at a future <br /> date. <br /> Not all of our unincorporated area is well suited to recycling collection using carts. For example, some <br /> residents or private gravel roads receive recycling collection at the point where the private road intersects <br /> with the public road instead of at the end of their driveway. Orange County's intention is to initially <br /> identify all the specific rural routes and parts thereof that can be well-served by roll carts instead of bins <br /> for recycling and develop a protocol for identifying those areas or specific streets or types of streets that <br /> are better suited to remaining with bins and keep those areas to a minimum.-We intend to use 95 gallon <br /> carts because we have a bi-weekly program and that cart size seems appropriate for every-other-week <br /> collection. By observation,many households now completely fill their two 18 gallon bins and more <br /> every collection cycle,so carts smaller than 95 gallons might be inadequate,especially as new materials <br /> are added. Geographic features likely to create higher levels of success in adoption of the carts over bins <br /> include shorter driveways,higher density areas and positive response to a possible County survey of <br /> recycling satisfaction. The general approach will be to offer carts to most program users. <br /> The County will use the survey results,other technical criteria and public feedback to minimize the <br /> number of households that must continue to use bins in order to improve collection efficiency when we <br /> convert to carts. We do anticipate that some households will need to continue using bins due to their <br /> particular circumstances such as physical handicaps or limited roadway access for collection trucks.Our <br /> overall intention is to convert as many households as possible to carts and create fairly precise and narrow <br /> criteria that limit the number of residents who can get an exemption to continue using bins.Experience in <br /> other areas with trash carts especially suggests that even those who resist adopting carts at first due,for <br /> example to having a long driveway to walk the cart down,come to accept the cart after initially <br /> continuing to use bins. <br /> Policies and approaches for service would be developed that would address specific local topographic, <br /> geographic and other challenges to enable the most efficient service in an equitable manner. We believe <br /> that most homes now receiving biweekly service with only two each 18 gallon recycling bins would <br /> generally be better-served by receiving a cart with almost three times the capacity of the two-bin system <br /> and ease of handling,especially for the slightly older population that predominates in our rural areas. <br /> Another reason for likely cart acceptance would be that the County would be able to eliminate its current <br /> requirement to cut down corrugated boxes to three feet by three feet and limit them to ten boxes for those <br /> using carts and being collected in newer collection trucks with compaction capability planned for <br /> purchase later in FY 2013-14.More capacity could readily allow for additional materials as markets <br /> become available. <br /> 2 <br />