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INFORMATION ITEM <br />Memorandum <br />To: Bonnie Hammersley, County Manager <br />From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Director <br />Subject: Information Report — Rural Roll Cart Distribution <br />Date: April 6, 2015 <br />As of December 2014 approximately 6,800 residences had responded to two direct mail surveys <br />requesting a new cart be delivered to their residence. Based on these requests and additional <br />anticipated requests from new construction or other residences in the service area, staff <br />recommended purchasing an additional 600 roll carts from the 7,000 roll carts budgeted in the <br />FY 2014/15 capital budget. An additional appropriation of approximately $66,000, for a total <br />purchase of 7,600 roll carts, was approved by the Board of Commissioners (BOCC) at their <br />December 1, 2014 meeting. <br />To date, all 7,600 roll carts have been deployed to a residence in the existing rural curbside <br />service area. The Department has received an unexpected and overwhelming response from <br />residences wanting to recycle with the new roll cart, receiving about 5 -10 requests each day <br />since the initial deployment ended in mid - February. Many residents have stated they never <br />received or noticed the two direct mailings sent out in the fall of 2014. Nevertheless, staff has <br />hoped that additional requests for roll carts would have lessened by now, but requests <br />continue to come in. As such, an additional 300 rural roll carts have been purchased utilizing <br />funds from the recycling division operations budget and approximately 25 residences currently <br />are on a waiting list. The new carts are anticipated to be delivered to those on the waiting list <br />in early to mid -May. <br />Two months have passed since the new carts have been deployed in the rural service area with <br />good results. When comparing tonnage and participation rates from February and March of <br />2014 to February and March of 2015, there are on average approximately 75 more residents <br />placing either a cart or bin at the curb on each collection route equating to an approximate 13% <br />increase in overall recycling participation. Also, we have collected approximately 75 more tons <br />of recycling than last year during the same time period, which is an approximate 29% increase <br />in tons. A similar result of increased tonnage collected has been observed in the urban <br />curbside recycling program after the delivery of new roll carts. <br />