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<br />• bale the portion of the source-separated residential mixed paper now collected at drop-off <br />sites loose in roll-offs, thus increasing material revenue and increasing the overall efficiency <br />and cost-effectiveness of managing this material that is now hauled loose to market; and <br />• expand commercial recycling efforts. <br />To optimize use of the freed-up labor time, two FTE positions are to be proposed to be <br />reclassified from recycling materials handlers to the position of solid waste collectors to enable <br />them to collect materials from more sites. <br />Hauling commingled containers in 115 cubic yard trailers produces synergies that benefit the <br />Rural and Multifamily programs including: <br />• increased hauling efficiency of commingled containers collected by these programs; <br />• reduction in fuel usage hauling these materials to market; <br />• net reduction in hauling time; and <br />• reduction by an estimated 350 trips a year in the number of outgoing trips from the Orange <br />County Landfill hauling the container recyclables collected by these programs. <br />The transition to more efficient hauling of commingled containers from these programs is <br />necessary for the Rural Curbside program to begin collecting corrugated cardboard because the. <br />addition of corrugated cardboard to this program will reduce the density of the outgoing paper <br />and increase our need to be able to receive, consolidate and store the residential mixed paper <br />with corrugated cardboard managed by the Rural curbside program. More efficient hauling of <br />bottles and cans allows reallocation of space and labor to manage the increased volume of paper. <br />Without the increased efficiency of hauling commingled containers in large loads, it would not <br />be possible to accommodate the Rural Curbside corrugated cardboard expansion using current <br />staffing and materials holding capacity. <br />Economic Tradeoffs from Switch to Commingling <br />Therers an economic trade off associated with this transition. With the significant <br />improvements in collection efficiency comes a reduced market value for the commingled cans <br />and bottles. On atop-per-ton-basis, source-separated materials have greater value as marketable <br />commodities than commingled containers. Despite this differential, across the country the <br />recycling industry has recognized that the benefits of collecting commingled materials, <br />especially the increase in collection .efficiency, outweighs the downside of reduced materials <br />revenue and for this reason the move towards commingling is an industry wide trend. <br />The following table provides a comparison in performance of projected tonnages and revenues <br />for FY 2008-09 for those programs that would be impacted by the transition in the Drop-off and <br />Commercial cans and bottles collection systems. The tonnage projection for commingled <br />containers shown for the Drop-off and Commercial Programs reflects a 6.25 percent increase <br />over the projections for source-separated tonnage that we expect to result from increased ease of <br />recycling plus an additiona125% increase in tons that result from the ability to expand the <br />number of commercial collection sites. Additionally, the revenue figure shown for commingled <br />containers is a relatively conservative projection, and Solid Waste staff members are actively <br />working on securing more favorable deals for the County, which could improve the revenue <br />projections for commingled containers. The table also shows revenue for the source-separated <br />plastics proposed to be added at Drop-off sites, increased revenue resulting from baling the <br />4 <br />