Orange County NC Website
<br /> Comprehensive Review of <br /> S olid W aste Collection and Disposal Options <br /> <br /> <br />v2.1 42 10/22/12 <br />likewise assist in a transition to automated collections as discussed in other sections of this <br />report. <br />Furthermore, the Town should consider revising the Town ordinance to limit the number of carts <br />placed by individual residents for weekly collection, or establish a fee for collection from <br />additional carts. Section 8 of this report, an evaluation of PAYT practices, presents several <br />options which may assist the SWSD in managing and accounting for waste volumes that exceed <br />the Town-issued cart capacity. These include: <br /> Implementing a supplemental PAYT bag or tag program, thus allowing excess waste <br />to be placed in a town-issued bag or a resident-provided bag/can tagged with a Town- <br />issued sticker, each purchased by the resident. <br /> Implementing a PAYT variable or subscribed can program. For those residents <br />requiring additional weekly disposal capacity, the resident could request a larger cart <br />(e.g., 95 gallon) and would be assessed a requisite annual fee. A discussion of <br />recommended fees is presented in Section 8. <br />4.1.1.2 Exemptions <br />As discussed in Section 2, Town collections staff currently service more than 900 households <br />claiming an exemption from the standard curbside, cart collections service. According to the <br />Town ordinance, these exemptions are offered to provide service to customers with disabilities <br />and other physical limitations, age-related ability, and challenging physical property <br />characteristics. Town staff indicated that exemptions are ideally reviewed annually; however, <br />this review has not been performed in some time. <br />The waste from exempt households is collected with either a rear loader or the scooter truck (i.e., <br />modified pick-up truck), depending on the household container’s distance from the main road. <br />Current and future routing processes cannot incorporate the exemptions since they require a <br />special vehicle or manual service. Proper routing for collection vehicles reduces travel time <br />between stops; however, the exemptions are located in all geographic areas of the Town which <br />will not benefit from reduced travel time between stops. Hence, servicing such a large number <br />of exemptions creates vast inefficiencies in the standard weekly collections. <br /> <br />Some of these exemptions were established several years ago and should be reexamined to assess <br />if the case for an exemption still applies to the current resident’s situation. Some exempt <br />collection households are close to the main streets, and these exemptions should be collected <br />with the rear loader trucks if the container is within a reasonable walking distance (i.e., <br />approximately 20 yards). <br />The number of exemptions offered by the Town appears large when compared to the number of <br />exemptions offered by the County for recycling collection. The County manages collection of <br />recyclables for 18,400 households in the combined areas of the Town as well as the <br />unincorporated areas of the County and the Towns of Carrboro and Hillsborough. The County <br />has just 115 exemptions for special recycling collection services. Over 7% of the Town’s <br />households receive an exemption for waste collection but less than 1% of the County’s