AGENDA #8
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Orange County Solid Waste Management Plan Three-year Update
DATE: April 14, 2004
Orange County’s Solid Waste Management Plan Three-year Update is submitted for review and comment. The plan will be presented by Mr. Gayle Wilson, Director of the Orange County Solid Waste Department. Chapel Hill’s representatives on the Solid Waste Advisory Board will comment on the report. We recommend that the Council receive comments from the public and refer the comments and any Council questions and comments to the Manager.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
On December 17, 2003, we received from County Manager John Link a copy of Orange County’s draft of the Solid Waste Management Plan Three-year Update. Orange County has requested that the Town of Chapel Hill endorse this plan as required by the State prior to submittal of the three-year update. While the State does not require the Towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill or Hillsborough to hold public hearings and/or meetings beyond those conducted by Orange County, the State does require that each of these three parties to the 1999 Inter-local Agreement on Solid Waste Management officially endorse the update. The County wishes to forward this update to the Solid Waste Division of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources as soon as possible.
The update originally was due to the state last summer, but the county was granted an extension because the Orange County Commissioners wished to examine the updated plan in detail. The commissioners completed their review in December 2003, and the Solid Waste Advisory Board discussed the draft plan at its meeting on January 8, 2004. In addition, a public hearing was held on February 17, 2004, to receive citizens’ comments.
As stated in the summary, the new plan includes significant changes to the 2000 Solid Waste Plan. The original plan included two key strategies for attaining the waste reduction goals set by the County. One was reducing municipal solid waste through an aggressive expansion of recycling services to all sectors of the county (commercial as well as residential waste producers) and the other was development and construction of a material recovery facility was seen as critical to achieve the first goal.
The County has now decided that the material recovery facility will not be built. The decision not to build the material recovery facility means that there will be no expansion of the types of materials and the sectors served by the county-operated recycling program.
The initial solid waste plan called for, in sequence, constructing a material recovery facility, then expansion to universal rural curbside, universal multifamily recycling and universal commercial recycling coupled with commingling of materials in all venues, including residential areas served by the current curbside program. This means that there will not be an opportunity for collecting commingled materials by roll cart. The change in the solid waste management plan means that curbside collection of mixed paper and types of rigid plastic containers other than bottles will not be initiated in the foreseeable future. Instead, the near term recycling program will be limited to accommodating the natural growth in residential and multifamily sectors and limited expansion of the current small scale commercial glass and food waste programs.
The changes will also preclude possible “pay as you throw” residential waste collection, because one of the effects of “pay as you throw” would be increased volumes of recycled materials, which the County has said would exceed their current program’s ability to handle. In addition, Chapel Hill will not realize the expected reduction in landfill tipping charges associated with the projected material recovery facility-related reduction of residential and commercial waste streams.
This program change does impact the Orange County Landfill’s disposal capacity. At current rates of use, the Orange County Landfill staff estimates that the lined portion of the landfill accepting Municipal Solid Waste will be full by 2009. At that time the plan states that the County will transfer the solid waste out of county. A specific transfer station site has not yet been chosen.
The goal of 45% diversion by 2001-02 was actually met in 2002-03. The longer-term goal of 61% diversion was reaffirmed in 2000 and again in this 2003 planning cycle. However, specific plans for meeting the goal are delayed past the original 2006 date until later in the ten year planning cycle. Orange County states that this postponement is due to changes in financing and other considerations by the local governments in Orange County.
The plan also notes the County’s plan to develop an alternative financing plan for solid waste operations, including recycling. The plan anticipates action by the Commissioners during this year’s budget deliberations.
Overall plan components:
Additional elements of the plan, other than those related to Waste Reduction and Recycling; include reporting on:
The Town of Chapel Hill is highlighted within the plan regarding:
· Changing to semi-automated curbside residential garbage collection.
· Creating economic incentives using a pay-as-you-throw commercial collection fee structure.
· Initiating scheduled residential brush collection, as an offshoot of increased efficiency of residential waste collection.
· Eliminating incidence of worker injury attributable to backyard collections including dog bites, bee stings, falls and back strain due to lifting and carrying overweight cans from backyards.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that the Council take the opportunity to hear comments from the Orange County staff and the Solid Waste Advisory Board and the public and refer any comments and questions to the Manager for a follow up staff report and possible recommendation.
ATTACHMENT