Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
Minutes Regular Meeting <br /> Solid Waste Advisory Board <br /> February 5, 2009 <br /> Approved March 5, 2009 <br /> Hauser states I trust my neighbors to do the right thing . I want to get back to the issue <br /> of infrastructure we are only talking right now about municipal solid waste . I am not <br /> talking about recycling, or yard debris or construction debris that all stays here . That <br /> infrastructure is completely operated by Orange County . The only thing we are <br /> talking about now and the only thing that is moving out to Bingham is the household <br /> waste stream . All the rest is staying here . <br /> Norwood states that wherever the transfer station ends up the less crap that goes in <br /> there the easier it is on the people that live next to it. <br /> Sassaman states that separating the garbage from the recycling is not that simple <br /> because we are talking about a system . In all the years that I have been on the board <br /> the one thing that is fascinating is the fact that all these things work together and that <br /> having control over the garbage you also have control and the ability to manipulate <br /> where the recyclables go . If you don ' t have control over the garbage you have <br /> significantly less control over recyclables . At the waste transfer station or the landfill <br /> we cannot accept cardboard, aluminum or whatever . We could say that to a vendor <br /> but if the vendor is hauling out of county we have no control over it. If we exercise <br /> control over the garbage at the point of transfer from us to a vendor we can then <br /> control what we give them . That is a very important thing if we want to increase our <br /> recycling . If we don' t care about our recycling that is another issue . If we cared only <br /> about the cost and nothing else I would rethink this problem and come up with a <br /> really cheap solution. <br /> Hauser states that no one is saying this is about cost. We are saying let the waste <br /> transfer station decision follow strategy not follow the reaction to the landfill being <br /> closed . Under your model, recycling operations are on Eubanks Rd . and the trash is <br /> out in Bingham . How does the recycling work under that model? <br /> Sassaman states that we would be able at the waste transfer station to fix that. If a <br /> private waste hauler has a truckload of garbage that is full of cardboard then he is <br /> going to have to more careful . <br /> Pollock states that in terms of what Orange Voice is interested in there are two clear <br /> cut things . One is a waste transfer station is not wise in Bingham Township and the <br /> other is maybe we need to rethink the paradigm of landfilling somewhere else . The <br /> locational issue is a different issue from the issue of public control and so on . There is <br /> some consensus around the notion that siting is important there is also at least on the <br /> SWAB some consensus about the degree of public control being important. You raise <br /> two different things - is this the right location and is public control the right thing. <br /> Hauser states that we are saying that there is no justification . We don ' t know where <br /> we are going with the waste and so anything we do has no basis for any decision. <br /> 14 <br />