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Minutes - Regular Meeting Solid Waste Advisory Board September 3, 2009 Approved November 5, 2009 A couple of points regarding franchise activity : if we don' t some how take into consideration the fact that disposal .at the convenience centers is perceived as ' free ' for all, the solid waste, the economic advantages of franchising decrease, as people don' t account for their costs of self-hauling . On the other side of the coin the notion of mandatory franchising, for cultural reasons as much as anything else, despite the clear economic advantages it is not something we want to push at the staff level or advocate at this point. That is up to you all . Smith asks are we in a position to have to reinvent the wheel . What are other counties doing? Can we go by their experience ? Pollock states that there are a number of counties in NC that have franchised waste collection services in the unincorporated areas for some years . The county that we have looked to most frequently is Catawba County . They have an exclusive franchise for ten years with one hauler for residential, commercial and construction waste . It is voluntary but exclusive . The residents that don' t use it have to use the convenience centers where they charge $1 / bag . The commercial would have to self haul to the landfill . Two years ago when we did the data collection they had about a 40 % participation rate . At the other end of the spectrum, Craven County has six haulers with very tiny districts . There is a lot of disposal outside the system . Their solid waste manager admitted to a lot of illegal dumping and burning from people trying to get away from the PAYT and franchise . Smith asks in Catawba County what is their per ton cost according to our cost now - for the individual cost for at home pickup . Pollock states that I didn' t get an update this year but it was an oddly incentivized arrangement. It was like $15 per month if you subscribe to the recycling service and $20 if you did not accept recycling . Their rationale was that it cost the hauler more to landfill the waste that got recycled, so a program with recycling should cost less . Sassaman asks typically who sets the fee . Pollock replies there is usually a biding process and then the county selects the lowest bidder that is qualified . Wilson states that the BOCC would approve the rates and make the award . Vickers states that in the discussions of the last work group meeting we went through most of the franchising operations . I think we got down to the point where the issues were one franchise to cover the county or was it sensible to do multiple because of 3