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Minutes - Regular Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board January 15, 2009 Approved February 5, 2009 across Homestead Road to the southside where the governments own the property and can give the easement rather than negotiating with multiple private property owners . Solid Waste Budget Issues Wilson states that the department has been instructed to reduce the operating budget by 10 % relative to current year ' s budget. That may be hard to do with major expenses related to designing and permitting a transfer station and landfill closure plans to develop along with a long list of other problems . It is possible that there may be some [recycling] service reductions because there is very little in the landfill that can be cut such as ground water monitoring, waste compaction, or not weigh trucks coming in. The part of the budget that is more discretionary is recycling . In addition to that the recycling market is down so the recycling revenue this year is to be about $200, 000 lower than expected . A garbage truck cost $250, 000, a hook lift truck $217, 000 . If they take the reserves, then how do we pay closure, the transfer station and sustaining our operation? We will have to cut for equity reasons . We received our first payment for the Green tract from the two Towns and the County of $214, 000 . _ Switch to Commingled Recycling Pollock states that last spring the consultants did an analysis with staff of the impact of switching the drop -off sites and the commercial program to commingled can and bottle collection . It looked like the tradeoff of less revenue for commingled than we' d gotten from the source separated materials was worth the option for the efficiency gained on the labor side . We no longer spend time baling and separating . In December the switch happened . The switch has been successful . They save dumping time at the processing pad too . A dangerous aspect of the operation has been eliminated . People like it. It is more convenient. The payload and tonnages are up . Grunwald states that the feedback she' s getting is very positive too that it' s easier now . Recycling Markets Collapse Pollock states that the recycling markets have collapsed . We are still getting paid for corrugated cardboard, newspaper is border line and mixed paper we are paying to get rid of. Some counties are stopping their recycling programs, they don' t have the surplus we do . Coca-Cola opened a billion. bottle-a- . year conversion plant yesterday that should improve the plastic [PET] bottle market. To help the paper markets, you should try to buy the recycled content products . Other Pollock states that some good news is Orange County has crossed the threshold to 50 . 4 % waste reduction rate compared to 1991 . We are the highest in the State for waste reduction [per capita] in FY07-08 going from 1 . 36 tons per person to 0 . 68 tons per person landfilled 6