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Minutes - Regular Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board 8 2005 January 6 , 2005 +R Approved March 3, 2005 Attendance : Linda Bowerman, B J Tipton, Al Vickers, Joe Clayton, Randy Kabrick, Remus Smith, and Jan Sassaman Staff : Gayle Wilson, Blair Pollock, Wanda McCain, and Rebecca Holdway 1 . Adoption of Minutes from December 9 Vickers moves to accept . Smith 2nd . Passes unanimously . 2 . Landfill Waste Characterization Study Pollock states that the cornerstone to recycling efforts is based on what' s in the garbage . We have done three fairly detailed waste characterizations since 1990 . The reason we are looking at doing another characterizations is that we ' ve done one every five years and that we are looking at a very serious investment of going to the next level of waste reduction and P recycling . We want to know whether the kinds of things we' ve seen over the last five years are still there . The key issues are time and money . The time piece is that if we are going to start our solid waste planning and use the new waste characterization to form what we look at, it needs to be done before the UNC students leave . The money issue is that these are not cheap to undertake . In 1999-2000 we did a two -season sort which cost $30, 000 . We anticipated that it would cost half that plus the cost of inflation but the same company wants to charge $26, 000 . We are doing some informal quotation about prices from other firms . We are asking your advice if you think it is a good idea to do another waste characterization or use what we have . Sassaman asks if of the previous studies have there been any significant differences ? Pollock replies yes, between 1999 and 2000 when the cardboard ban came into effect . In the commercial sector cardboard went from 20 % by weigh to 4 % . Wilson states that one thing that is a factor in the cost of the sort is what is the sort . We have a list of 45 materials to sort . Another issue is what are we likely to find out to change the direction we are going in . Pollock states that locally a couple of things could change . The food waste program has made a dent in the amount of the captureable part of the commercial food waste . It ' s been highly effective . The other place that might have a change is the amount of glass that remains out there . It ' s a little bit of a conundrum - - as we collect more tons it looks like we ' re more successful, but as people switch away from glass bottles, the tons of potential recyclables disappear . The tons of glass go away . Kabrick states that spending money to understand the problem is money well spent . 1