Agenda - 02-05-2008-11a - Laserfiche WebLink

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could result in a decrease in toxicity of the waste stream. Orange County's electronics recycling program is well-developed and ready to manage the additional materials a ban could create. While a ban on newspapers, magazines or plastic bottles in theory shows a higher percentage savings than corrugated cardboard, staff is concerned that those bans would be far more difficult to enforce than beginning to enforce the already existing ban on the much more visible corrugated cardboard. Further, there is a large public demand for curbside cardboard recycling and that service could be a natural companion piece to enforcement of the current non-residential ban. II - Recycling Program Additions and Expansions Considerations for extending the life of the landfill by means of expanding current recycling services and implementing services for new materials include: A. Addition of rigid plastics, textiles and recyclable plastic film at the drop off sites and/or solid waste convenience centers; Items identified by staff that could be reasonably considered for addition to most drop-off recycling sites include large rigid plastics, injection molded plastics (cups and tubs), textiles, and recyclable plastic film. It is not feasible to consider adding any of these materials to the curbside recycling program at this time due to the fact that area processing facilities will not commit to accepting these materials commingled with traditional recyclables and marketing of these materials would require that materials be baled and sold in truck-load quantities. In general, markets for all of these materials have strengthened considerably over the past few years. Staff at this point believes that in the short term, the opportunity exists for adding only one of these items, due to, space constraints at the convenience centers and that collection requires intermediate processing and short-term storage at Orange County's current recycling processing area. Before the County could consider managing injection molded plastics, rigid plastics, or plastic film, the Solid Waste Management Department would need to be able to free up processing capacity by making changes in the way the traditional recyclables (bottle and cans) from the drop-off and commercial recycling programs are managed by moving towards the commingling of these containers and shipping the can and bottle mixture to an existing commercially operated materials processor. This transition was discussed in detail at the Solid Waste Work Plan Group meeting on November 28, 2007, and a recommendation to the BOCC on this matter is forthcoming. The addition of rigid plastics (buckets, toys, kiddie pools) may provide an estimated savings of 1.1 months of landfill space. B. Addition of corrugated cardboard to the curbside recycling programs; The option of adding corrugated cardboard to the Urban and Rural Curbside Recycling Programs could be available for implementation as soon as July 2008 (if enterprise funds are authorized for the current year). The costs of the addition to the Urban Curbside program are known because terms for this expansion are written into the current contract at an additional $0.20 per household per month or about $43,500 per year for the approximately 18,000 homes currently on the program. The cost to add corrugated cardboard to rural curbside could be greater than the urban program because the additional bulk may accelerate the need to add an additional collection 4