HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-05-2011 - 9aORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: December 5, 2011
Action Agenda
Item No. q - a
SUBJECT: Conversion of Rec cling Programs to Sin le Stream (Comingled) Collection
DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management,
County Manager
PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S):
Memorandum to County Manager
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste
Management, 919-968-2885
Michael Talbert, County Manager,
919-245-2153
PURPOSE: To receive from County staff information regarding planning for implementation of
single stream recycling and to provide guidance to staff with regard to proceeding to
implementation.
BACKGROUND: The Board of County Commissioners and the Towns have for several years
have expressed interest in moving to single stream recycling collection. The Solid Waste
Planning Work Group, the Solid Waste Advisory Board and various individual County residents
have also advocated this change.
Consistent with the adopted Fiscal 2011/12 Solid Waste Budget, Orange County recycling
programs are now planned to implement single stream recycling by July 2012. This change
would be implemented for all County recycling programs -Rural Curbside, Urban Curbside,
Solid Waste Convenience Centers, Multi-family, Commercial, Schools, etc.
Single stream recycling is the practice of comingling all recyclable materials (paper and
containers) together for collection rather than separating containers .from paper (normally
referred to as dual stream). There may be some slight variations among programs as
discussed in the attached memorandum to the County Manager.
An example of the efficiencies gained by the switch to single stream can be best illustrated by
the expected reduction in contract cost in the Urban Curbside program. The current cost to the
County for this collection is $4.17 per household per month resulting in a Fiscal Year 2011-12
budget of $931,395 for this service. Once the County switches to single stream collection, staff
hopes to reduce the cost down to between $3.00 and $3.75 per household per month. Using
the current population, if the cost is as high as $3.75 per household per month, the contract cost
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cost could be as low as $823,500 per year. Staff has also had some estimates that indicate the
cost could be as low as $3.00 per household per month, which would bring the contract cost
down to around $658,800 annually.
It is anticipated that roll-carts will be utilized for the Urban Curbside Program (contracted
service) and that the Rural Curbside Program (County staff provided service) will continue to
utilize 18-gallon bins, at least for the near term. It is currently understood from resident
comments that portions of the Rural Program may not be suitable for roll-carts and staff will,
over the next year or two, assess areas where roll-carts can be reasonably used with the
expectation that eventually roll-carts can be provided for certain select rural areas.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The adopted Fiscal 2011/12 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) indicates an
estimated expense of $948,500 to purchase 18,970 roll-carts. It is anticipated that the carts
could be debt financed over a period of about five years with debt service paid from the increase
in collection efficiency as reflected in a lower vendor cost per household. Alternatively the carts
could be acquired through a piggyback contract purchase or by incorporating provision of the
carts into the collection vendor scope of services.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board receive the single stream
recycling implementation update and provide staff with guidance relative to implementation or
operation of the transition to single stream recycling.
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MEMORANDUM
To: Frank Clifton, County Manager
From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Management Director
Subject: Single Steam Recycling Transition
Date: November 18, 2011
The purpose of this memo is to provide a description and brief analysis of Orange County's
transition to single stream recycling scheduled for implementation in July, 2012. Currently, Orange
County Solid Waste provides a variety of collection services to single family homes, multifamily
homes, businesses, both school districts, government buildings, and ten drop-off facilities. Each
program collects traditional recyclables dual stream, meaning bottles and cans are collected in a
separate container than all paper products. Single stream collection allows all of the recyclable
material (glass, aluminum cans, steel cans, plastic, junk mail, newspaper, magazines, office paper,
etc.) to be combined in the same receptacle.
It has been the national trend over the past 5-8 years to collect recyclables single stream due to
several factors. The markets that purchase material, known as MRFs (Material Recovery Facilities)
have improved their technology to separate the material when it enters their facility. Thus, the
revenue from the single stream has become more stable and predictable. Local governments and
private haulers have begun collecting single stream because the efficiencies that are gained when
collecting and hauling material, i.e. collection becomes less expensive. Furthermore, communities
are seeing higher participation rates and overall volume has increased because it is more convenient
for residents when they do not have to sort and the carts that the material is collected in are often
easier to maneuver and hold more material. For these reasons, starting July 2012 each County
program will be collected single stream. The move to single stream is consistent with
recommendations from the Solid Waste Planning Work Group, County Staff and the Solid Waste
Advisory Board (SWAB). The Towns have been requesting consideration of single stream for some
time. The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) authorized this programmatic change by its
inclusion in the Fiscal 2011/12 budget adoption.
Orange County has had a recycling collection program since the late 1980's. The program first
started with drop-off sites and then contracted out for curbside collection for all three municipalities
in 1989. In the beginning residents could only recycle aluminum cans, glass, and newspaper at the
curb and the five drop-off sites, "source separated." Source separated means there was a bin for
each commodity at the drop-off sites (aluminum, green glass, clear glass, amber glass, and
newspaper). And curbside, residents could throw this material in one bin at the curb and the drivers
would be responsible for separating each commodity into compartments in the truck as they
collected. As markets became more prevalent, steel cans, plastic bottles, and magazines were added
to the collections through the 1990s, still source separated.
In addition to materials added at the curb and at drop-offs, source separated government buildings,
rural curbside, multi-family, and commercial programs started in the early 1990s. In 2006-2007,
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each single family home in each municipality and each rural home within the rural curbside route
was given a second bin. The County added mixed paper and cardboard as a commodity that could
be recycled and started collecting the curbside material "dual stream." Dual stream is the current
system that asks residents to separate bottles and cans from all other paper products. Then in 2008
the other programs (multi-family, commercial, and government buildings) were transitioned to dual
stream. Each transition in the program has increased recycling tonnage while increasing collection
and hauling efficiencies. As we transition to single stream we anticipate these trends to continue and
hope to inch the County closer to its commitment of 61 percent waste diversion.
Urban Curbside Collection
Each program will be collected as single stream and the efficiencies gained will affect each program
differently. The urban curbside program will be the most noticeable change for single family
residents in each incorporated area (Hillsborough, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill). The most obvious
change will be the change from two 18 gallon bins at each home to one cart with wheels and a lid at
each home. These carts will give residents more capacity for material, and the preparation for each
resident will be much easier and convenient, because no sorting is involved or heavy lifting to the
curb.
Currently, the County is contracted with Waste Industries for the collection of urban curbside
recycling. This contract expires June 30, 2012 which will align well with the new collection
process. An RFP for a new collection contract will go out in December 2011 or January 2012 and
we hope to award the bid in February or March of 2012. Due to the new single stream collection
process, the per household contract cost should decrease significantly. We hope to finance the carts
with this savings and pay them off within 5-6 years. To obtain the roll carts at lowest cost we will
explore three options for acquisition: 1) RFP for curbside collection will include the possibility of
purchasing carts through and incorporated within the collection contract, 2) purchasing the carts
directly from a cart vendor through a competitive bid process, and 3) piggybacking on another
governmental bid award.
The program has grown to 18,300 homes between the three municipalities and recycled 3,766 tons
of material in FY 10-11. The current cost to the County for this collection is $4.17 per household
per month. For Fiscal Year 2011-12, Solid Waste has budgeted $931,395 for this service. One of the
biggest motivations for this program change is the potential decrease in contract cost. According to
the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Assistance and
Outreach, many communities have saved money in contract costs after changing to single stream
collection. Once we put a request for purchase out for single stream collection, we hope to get the
cost down between $3.00 and $3.75 per household per month. Using the current population, if the
cost is as high as $3.75 per household per month the contract cost could be as low as $823,500 per
year. We have had some estimates that indicate that the cost could be $3.00 per household per
month, which would bring the contract cost down to around $658,800 annually.
The contract cost for urban curbside collection is likely to drop for several reasons. Right now, the
vendor operates four trucks collecting a route each day. Each truck is running ten hours per day to
collect. It takes ten hours because each truck fills up and dumps twice each day. The current bodies
of the trucks are divided in two (paper accumulates in the back, and bottles/cans accumulate in
front) and do not have the capability to compact the material. Given that two different materials
need to be separated in the truck, one compartment of the truck will fill up faster than the other. For
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example, a truck may be completely filled with bottles and cans, but the paper compartment is only
3/4 full. Even though there is still more room in the paper compartment, the truck must drive back
and empty because he or she could not collect more bottles and cans. Thus, the truck is hauling
material back to the property to dump with a lot of unused air space. A single stream truck has the
ability to compact the material and utilize all of the air space in the single compartment truck body.
Therefore, that same driver can stay out on route much longer and only drive back to dump when
there is no airspace left in the body of the truck. This could allow the vendor to purchase less than
four curbside collection vehicles. Each truck will also be able to collect each home quicker with a
more automated- means of collecting carts, opposed to manually lifting two different bins at each
house. The vendor will be able to decrease the amount of time each truck and employee is on route
while using less fuel because of the decreased trips hauling material to dump in the middle of a
route.
The approved FY 11-12 CIP included the acquisition of 18,970 carts at $ 948;500. The size of the
cart, based upon public input, experience of cart vendors, staff research into experiences in other
locations, recent discussions with the SWAB, and staff's local understanding of and experience; we
are proposing acquisition of 95 gallon carts as opposed to 65 gallon carts. The difference in cost
between the sizes varies, but is usually $3 or $4 per cart. The carts that have been purchased around
the State have ranged from $40 each to $50 each depending on quantity and plastic resin prices. The
price of the cart will include the assembly and the distribution of the cart. As stated before, with the
savings from decreased collection costs, we believe the County will be able to purchase the carts
and pay them off within five years, hopefully without temporarily having to increase the Urban 3-R
Fee. We will be looking at piggy-back options to purchase the carts as well. This means that we
may be able to get the pricing of a larger municipality or county that has recently bought carts. The
per-unit cost of a cart is usually always less expensive in larger quantities. It is possible to get the
pricing of a community that has recently purchased 30 or 40 thousand carts opposed to the 19,000
we plan to purchase. If there is no reasonable piggy-back option, we will compare the options of
acquire the carts through the collection vendor or directly from a cart company with an RFP.
We will also be looking to receive a grant from the North Carolina Department of Natural
Resources to help purchase the carts. Right now, local governments have a chance to receive up to
$75,000 towards the purchase of recycling carts. We will be working on this application in the
coming months. In order to receive the funding, one stipulation is that each cart be equipped with a
radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. The chip does not necessarily need to be used
immediately but it would be in place for future use.
An RFID chip is basically a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data. The small chip is
placed in each cart and the collection trucks are equipped with devices that scan the chip each time
it is collected. After scanning, the information is automatically uploaded into a database. This
technology is something the Solid Waste Department would like to use immediately and make sure
that our collection provider has the equipment on their truck to read the information. This allows us
to track the location and maintenance of the carts, participation rates, set out rates, and other
statistics that will help us improve our overall waste diversion. By knowing participation rate, we
will be able to target our education by sending brochures to low performing areas opposed to
sending educational material to the entire community.
The Solid Waste office recommends the 95 gallon cart for several reasons. It will allow plenty of
room for a typical single family home. This size of container will provide enough space for bulky
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cardboard in which we continue to see increased volumes at the curb. A large cart will allow the
program to evolve and accept more materials without a need to purchase larger carts in the near
future. If the markets start accepting bulky plastics (#2, #4, and #5 rigid plastics) or some other
unforeseen material at the curb, the large cart will likely provide capacity, where the 65 gallon cart
would have limitations. The cost difference between the two sized carts is very minor. If the County
wanted to consider collecting every other week in the future, the 95 gallon will provide enough
capacity to do this. In our research, communities axe finding that the 65 gallon cart is not enough
capacity for two weeks for many households.
Note: We do not recommend providing two different size carts and giving citizens an option. After
speaking with other local governments who have tried the two cart option have indicated that it
becomes too cumbersome to track the cart size that each resident wants. In many other communities
citizens may think they want one size, but after it is delivered they request a different size. Solid
Waste staff does not have the ability to repeatedly change sizes and deliver the carts to residents and
is concerned about committing additional staff resources to this activity.
Currently, the Town of Hillsborough uses 95 gallon gray carts for household waste, and no carts for
yard waste. The Town of Carrboro also uses 95 gallon solid green carts for household waste. The
older carts are light green and the newer carts are a darker green. Carrboro uses a brown 95 gallon
cart for yard waste. The Town of Chapel Hill uses 68 gallon green carts with black lids for
household waste and 95 gallon brown carts for yard waste. They also have older light green carts
for household waste.
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The Solid Waste staff would like to have the recycling carts differ from the carts that are currently
in use in the towns. We recommend a light or dark blue cart. This way, without reading the labels,
one can tell at a distance what material the cart is used for. Though we want the cart to have an
identifiable difference, we feel that citizens. do not want a bright cart that significantly stands out.
Each cart company provides different shades of blue, and we are proposing a medium to dark blue
color, as shown on the next page.
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Carrboro Household Waste (95 gallon)
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Chapel Hill Yard Waste (95 gallon)
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Though we will be moving to cart collection we will continue to provide special services for those
citizens that are unable to bring the cart to the end of their driveway because of age or disability.
The driver will continue to walk to the house and bring the receptacle to the truck for the citizen for
both the urban and rural curbside program.
When transitioning the urban curbside program to single stream, there will be a substantial route re-
organization and slight service disruptions. The company that is awarded the contract will be
responsible for the re-routing and will work closely with the Solid Waste staff. Part of our education
strategy will include the details of the re-route to minimize citizen confusion. Since there will be
significant change in service, we are anticipating citizen concerns (i.e. how to place carts at curb;
when the new recycling day is, what is and is not accepted, etc.) and plan to work with any issues
that may occur in the months following implementation. However, since urban residents in each
Town is already familiar with using carts through their current garbage and yard waste service staff
feels confident there will be few problems.
Rural Curbside Collection
The rural curbside program will also transition to single stream and continue to use the two 18
gallon orange bins that they currently use. The rural program has grown to 12,500 single family
homes, which covers about 65 percent of the rural community. This collection service is every other
week and recycled 1,868 tons of material in FY 10-11. The rural citizens should see an added
convenience to recycling since they will no longer need to keep bottles and cans separate in the
orange bins. Instead of using two bins to separate the materials, some citizens may be able to put
items in one bin and carry it down to the curb. This convenience will hopefully increase
participation. The drivers on these routes will also see some collection efficiencies. They will no
longer need to make a special trip back to our facility if one compartment fills faster than the other,
they will no longer need to dump in separate compartments of the truck and will no longer need to
spend time separating the little material that sometimes becomes mixed in citizen's bins. In order
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for the rural program to achieve the full potential and efficiencies of single stream collection roll
carts should be implemented where operationally feasible.
The rural program will not receive carts during the initial implementation of single stream because
some citizens with long driveways or private lanes have expressed concern about taking carts to the
curb. Also, our current collection vehicles do not have the ability to collect carts. These trucks are
made to collect bins (see picture below). The drivers fill a side hopper with material, and then the
hopper dumps into the body. The cycle time (time for the side hopper to rotate up and dump its
contents into the body of the truck and return to its lower position) is too long to dump a cart at each
house. A special semi-automated truck is needed with a quick cycle time, undivided single
compartment and compaction to experience all the full efficiencies of single stream curbside
collection.
We hope to provide carts on the rural program to some areas of the County in 2013 or 2014 as we
audit the routes, solicit additional resident input and identify where carts are most practical and
where bins are most practical. Roll carts will work well in many areas of unincorporated Orange
County.
The replacement of our current curbside recycling vehicles (which also are utilized for our multi-
family and commercial programs) is currently past due and maintenance issues are increasing.
However, we have delayed replacing them pending the implementation of single stream collection
and the likelihood of implementing roll carts in several portions of the rural program. It is
important to conduct our evaluation of where carts might work in the rural program as soon as
possible so that our ageing fleet can be replaced with the proper type truck, i.e. with trucks that have
roll-cart collection and compaction capabilities. As efficiencies are gained from the collection of
single stream, and later moving to roll carts in many areas, we will free-up staff and truck resources
to enable expansion of the rural curbside program to collect more areas of the County without
increases in the Rural 3-R Fee and possibly a reduction in the fee. People on the denser, outlying
areas of our existing routes continue to call and express interest in curbside recycling. Trucks that
have compaction and can collect carts, will allow us to expand without adding resources.
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Current rural curbside collection truck
Single stream collection truck with compaction
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Multi-Family and Commercial Collection
The multi-family and commercial programs will also transition to single stream collection at the
same time but will not be as noticeable as the curbside transition as they already utilize roll carts.
Nevertheless, it will provide a more convenient and easy process for citizens in apartments because
they will no longer need to sort. The carts in these locations will stay the same, but the labels will
change.
The multi-family program collects about 95 percent of the multi-family units in the County and
recycled 1,242 tons of material in FY 10-1 1. The five percent that is currently not collected have not
been able to comply with the service because of improperly mixing of recyclables or contamination
issues. With the efficiencies gained in this program, the Solid Waste Management Department will
be able to try collection again at these apartments and will hopefully be more successful with the
simpler single stream message.
The Solid Waste Management office currently collects recycling from around 250 businesses at
about 175 shared collection sites. In FY 10-11, this program recycled 988 tons of material. With the
efficiencies gained on single stream staff believes up to 10 to 15 percent more businesses could be
added as work load allows.
These two programs will experience efficiencies for the reasons mentioned above such as one
compartment becoming full before the other, lack of compaction and operator attention to ensuring
that each of the two streams are placed into the proper compartment. Nevertheless, these routes will
not realize their full potential collecting single stream until the trucks are replaced with single
compartment bodies and compacting capabilities as noted in Rural Curbside section. The trucks
used for multi-family and commercial collections are identical to those used for rural curbside
collection offering maximum operational flexibility and interchangeability.
Schools
The Orange County Public Schools will change from dual stream to single stream and hopefully
find convenience in no longer sorting material. Last year the Orange County School system
recycled 66 tons.
This is the first year for the Solid Waste Management Department to collect recycling at the Chapel
Hill - Carrboro Schools. We have already started collecting single stream here because their
previous collector collected their material single stream. In order to minimize confusion we
continued to provide the same service.
Government Buildings
Government buildings were responsible for 131 tons of recycling last fiscal year and we will
continue to collect their material in carts inside the buildings. However, it is not clear if we should
continue to collect that material dual stream. The large majority of the material that comes from
government buildings is high grade paper and since we exchange carts with a box truck there will
not be many efficiency gains by combining the material. It may be possible to keep the material
separate to gain more revenue from a clean paper stream. Though this decision is not clear yet, we
will know before the complete transition in the spring of 2012.
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Drop-off and Convenience Center Sites
In FY 10-11 we collected 5,345 tons of recyclable material from these sites. This includes the five
unstaffed 24-hour sites in the incorporated areas and the five Solid Waste Convenience Centers
around the County. All .ten of these sites will transition to single stream as well. However, rigid
plastic and cardboard will continue to be separated at these locations. Cardboard is a clean, easy to
distinguish stream of material that continues to be a good revenue source. Each roll-off container
that is currently at each of the sites will be painted and will contain new signs illustrating the new
single stream system.
The drop-off sites will experience small efficiencies because all of the material will be ran back to
our facility in Chapel Hill, opposed to running the newspaper/magazine and mixed paper to market
in Durham or Raleigh, thus saving truck miles and fuel. The solid waste convenience centers will
experience more efficiencies as they are improved with compactors. Walnut Grove will be the first
site to experience the compactors. It will have one compactor for cardboard and one compactor for
single stream. We estimate that this could save our recycling collection vehicles almost 240 trips in
a year.
Education and Outreach
The detailed plan for our education and outreach approach has not yet been developed. However,
we will certainly develop a wide-ranging program that will utilize a variety of
education/outreach/advertising methods through the various phases of implementation. A
comprehensive education and outreach plan will be developed over the next 2-3 months to ensure a
well-informed public and a successful transition to single stream. We also plan to be available to
brief the Towns as to the implementation planning as some elected officials have expressed interest
in county staff speaking to their boards.
We currently do a great deal of education and outreach explaining the current preparation for
recycling collection. With single stream, the message will be more clear and concise so the message
will be easier to convey. Single Stream in carts does increase the potential for contamination and
will be a focus of our education.
Processing and Hauling
All of the material is currently brought back to our Eubanks Road facilities and consolidated with
all of the other recycling collection routes. Paper is dumped in one area of the property and bottles
and cans are dumped in another area of the property. The bottles and cans are currently shipped to a
MRF in Greensboro on a walking floor trailer and the paper is shipped to Durham using 40-yard
roll-off containers transported by a hook lift truck. Once urban curbside changes to single stream,
all other programs will need to change to single stream as well due to processing space constraints
and hauling constraints. Processing and hauling will become both more straightforward as there will
only be one comingled material for staff to receive, reload onto tractor trailers and haul to market
providing a much quicker turnaround time for the route collection trucks, pad processing and
hauling to one market location.
Heavier payloads of single stream material will be shipped to one market, opposed to light loads of
bottles aid cans shipped to Greensboro and light loads of paper shipped to Durham. We are
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currently shipping three to four loads of mixed paper to Durham each day with a hook lift truck at
15 tons per load and two loads of bottles and cans to Greensboro each day at 10 tons each load.
Once we transition to single stream, staff intends to ship four loads of material each day to a market
to be determined at 15 to 20 tons each load, thus, decreasing fuel consumption and truck miles.
Tentative Timeline
• November 9, 2011: Discuss transition with SWAB
• December: Update and inform commissioners
• December -January: Initiation of RFP for collection
• December -January: Evaluate cart piggy-back options
• February -March: Award urban curbside collection bid and finalize acquisition of carts
• March -June: Collection route and cart distribution analysis
• May -June: Education and outreach (newspaper ads, postcards, newsletter)
• Mid-Late June: Distribution of Carts
• July 2012: Start collecting single stream recycling
• July -Dec: Work through issues related to transition, refine collection and hauling
Conclusion
The Solid Waste Management Department plans, as discussed above, to proceed with
implementation of single stream for these recycling programs to include acquisition of 95 gallon
blue roll carts with a goal of completing this transition by July 2012. Staff is available to respond to
questions, or receive comments or additional guidance from the County Manager or Board of
County Commissioners.
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