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