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To bring more businesses into the fold, county employees recruit stores one at a time, the old-fashioned way, County representatives stop in, buy gas or snacks and ask the owner or manager if the business wishes to participate. Staff follow up via email or ground mail, offering a simple no -fee contract to assure stored engagement and understanding of the program. While the answer more often than not from store owners has been "yes," it is also useful for the county to understand the thinking of those who decline. One operator stated he did not want his staff to have to "maintain" the cot as described in our contract. Thus, we later clarified in the contract language that stores are simply asked to wipe down the exterior of the collection receptacle and to call us if high levels of contamination are present. Even that apparently was more work than that one business wanted to take on, however. One unexpected issue for participating stores was seen when the originallyplaced 35- gallon barrels blew away in a winter storm. The county replaced those donated barrels with repurposed 35- gallon rollcarts that had come out of service at government offices when converting to single - stream collection. We drilled a restrictive hole in the lid and drilled holes at the lid edge for cotter pins to prevent lifting the lid. The biggest problem, however, may be that those carts are an "olive drab" green rather than the varying shades of blue that have become associated with recycling over the pose 30 years since the origins of the blue box program in Tomato. And in fact, the county has otherwise stuck to the blue motif for all other county recycling containers. 'Ilse county has tried to solve that color waundrum by plastering the cars with stickers that identify them as recycling collection receptacles,stating "cans and bottles only." We've found it is much simpler and easier to communicate this message than also using phrases such as "all clean, dry paper.' The result is relatively low rates of contamination given the fact that these receptacles are being used by people who are stopping for gas and taking that opportunity to clean out their cars. TOOL IN THE FIGHT FOR MORE PLASTICS RECYCLING Along with stickers on the carts, the county has tried with sporadic success to place a state - generated sticker on the surrounding trash containers stating that it's illegal in North Carolina to dispose of plastic hordes or aluminum cans and they should be recycled. Sometimes the stickers are removed or ignored, but they do or as another "weapon" in the fight to capture recyclable plastics and other materials. In 2009, the stare passed a law adding plastic battle — as well as pallets, oyster shells and oil filters —to a statewide landfill ban. In the wake of that action, the state reponed doubling the plastic bottle manage recovered, so even though the ban is largely unenforced, the law initially had an impact. As North Carolina has not been successful in passing a bottle bill, we make do with using the law and, in Orange County's case, by trying to make recycling as convenient as possible. PRU Blair I.. Pollock is a solid waste planner for Orange County, N.C. He tart be contacted at bpollock@orangecounryncgov. PRU I Novsmber2016 23