Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
<br />1 <br />Orange County/Report/Final Report <br />Section 1 <br />Introduction <br />1.1 Study Objectives <br />Orange County (County) contracted Kessler Consulting, Inc. (KCI) to conduct a waste composition <br />study (WCS) to characterize the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated within the County for <br />disposal. The purpose of the WCS was to provide useful information regarding the types and <br />percentages of various materials, including recyclable materials, currently being disposed to <br />compare with previous study data and to assist in developing future solid waste and resource <br />management programs. The results of this WCS were compared to previous WCSs to evaluate the <br />change in waste composition over time. <br />1.2 Background <br />Orange County, located in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, had an estimated <br />population of 141,796 in 2016.1 The County includes three municipalities: the towns of Chapel Hill, <br />Carrboro, and Hillsborough. Approximately 62 percent of the County’s population lives in these <br />municipalities; Chapel Hill itself has 42 percent of the population. <br />Education and health services are the major industries in the County. The County is home to the <br />University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (UNC), which has a student body of 29,469 <br />undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.2 UNC is also the top employer in the County, <br />followed by the UNC Health Care System, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, and Orange County <br />Schools3. Because of this, UNC is a major source of MSW in the County. <br />MSW generated in the County is collected by a combination of the Orange County Solid Waste <br />Department, the individual municipalities, and various private haulers. The County owns and <br />operates five convenience centers for use by County residents for collecting residential MSW, <br />recyclables, bulky waste, and other materials. The County also operates a commercial collection <br />vehicle that collects MSW from County schools and County offices. All other single-family <br />residential, multi-family residential, and commercial MSW in the unincorporated areas of the <br />County is collected by private haulers, the largest of which are Waste Management, Republic, and <br />Waste Industries. Chapel Hill and Carrboro provide residential and some commercial collection <br />within their municipalities. Hillsborough collects single-family residential MSW and contracts with <br />Waste Industries to collect commercial MSW. Remaining non-residential waste is collected by <br />private haulers in open market. Towns provide some free collection for multifamily housing. UNC <br />provides its own contracted collection for all MSW generated on campus. <br />The County estimates, based on NC State Government Reports, 56,778 tons of MSW were <br />generated in FY 2014-15. Over 70 percent of this MSW was disposed at Waste Industries’ transfer <br />station in Durham, and much of the rest was disposed at the City of Durham’s transfer station. <br /> <br />1 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/37135 <br />2 http://uncnews.unc.edu/facts-about-carolina/facts-figures/ <br />3 http://d4.nccommerce.com/QCEWLargestEmployers.aspx <br />DocuSign Envelope ID: 00C54720-9DC0-4A3D-ABED-77E0FD28E0CD