County delivers 18,000 new recycling carts

Orange County residents may find it easier to recycle with a new program being implemented by the county.

The Orange County Solid Waste Management Department is replacing some 18-gallon rectangular recycling bins, which have been used in the county for 25 years, with new blue 95-gallon wheeled carts.

The department started delivering more than 18,000 carts to households in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough on June 9. Residents will begin using the new containers for recycling next week.

Orange County Solid Waste Planner Blair Pollock said the switch from bins to carts cost the county more than $1 million. He said the county received $203,000 in grants from the state, and it plans to finance the rest of the payment over time. This year’s payment was drawn from reserve funds, he said.

Pollock said the county decided to make the change for several reasons.

“For most people it’s going to be physically easier to roll a cart to the curb than it is to carry bins to the curb,” he said.

“It’s also more efficient because you have almost three times the capacity so you don’t have to take it out as frequently. And from the collector’s perspective, it’s also safer and faster and therefore cheaper to collect with the automated system.”

The carts also contain radio-frequency identification chips which monitor their locations and track how often they are placed at the curb.

The chips will enable the department to automatically determine the recycling participation rates for communities in the county — something Pollock said the county has been doing manually for more than a decade.

Pollock said several materials which were previously accepted only at solid waste convenience centers can now be accepted through the curbside recycling program because of the carts’ increased volume.

Pollock said already, Chapel Hill has a 90 percent participation rate — and he’s not sure if there will be a significant increase with the use of the new carts.

But Rob Taylor, senior environmental specialist with the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service, said although Orange County already has a high bin-based participation rate, he believes the carts will create a significant increase in participation based on results from another cart-based program in North Carolina.

“The closest parallel to what might happen in Chapel Hill is what happened in Asheville,” Taylor said. “Asheville also had a very high participating recycling program that was bin-based, and their performance with bins was similar to what Chapel Hill does today, and after they switched to carts they got a giant jump in participation.”

Jan Sassaman, chairman of the Orange County Commission for the Environment, said he expects the carts to positively influence both the community and the environment.

“It helps us do what we know is right to do,” he said.

“Chapel Hill and Orange County have very good environmental ethics. For me, at least, it makes it a little bit easier to do what I know I ought to be doing.”

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.