HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 04-21-2015-13 (2)INFORMATION ITEM
Memorandum
To: Bonnie Hammersley, County Manager
From: Gayle Wilson, Solid Waste Director
Subject: Information Report — Rural Roll Cart Distribution
Date: April 6, 2015
As of December 2014 approximately 6,800 residences had responded to two direct mail surveys
requesting a new cart be delivered to their residence. Based on these requests and additional
anticipated requests from new construction or other residences in the service area, staff
recommended purchasing an additional 600 roll carts from the 7,000 roll carts budgeted in the
FY 2014/15 capital budget. An additional appropriation of approximately $66,000, for a total
purchase of 7,600 roll carts, was approved by the Board of Commissioners (BOCC) at their
December 1, 2014 meeting.
To date, all 7,600 roll carts have been deployed to a residence in the existing rural curbside
service area. The Department has received an unexpected and overwhelming response from
residences wanting to recycle with the new roll cart, receiving about 5 -10 requests each day
since the initial deployment ended in mid - February. Many residents have stated they never
received or noticed the two direct mailings sent out in the fall of 2014. Nevertheless, staff has
hoped that additional requests for roll carts would have lessened by now, but requests
continue to come in. As such, an additional 300 rural roll carts have been purchased utilizing
funds from the recycling division operations budget and approximately 25 residences currently
are on a waiting list. The new carts are anticipated to be delivered to those on the waiting list
in early to mid -May.
Two months have passed since the new carts have been deployed in the rural service area with
good results. When comparing tonnage and participation rates from February and March of
2014 to February and March of 2015, there are on average approximately 75 more residents
placing either a cart or bin at the curb on each collection route equating to an approximate 13%
increase in overall recycling participation. Also, we have collected approximately 75 more tons
of recycling than last year during the same time period, which is an approximate 29% increase
in tons. A similar result of increased tonnage collected has been observed in the urban
curbside recycling program after the delivery of new roll carts.