By Blair L. Pollock

Orange County Solid Waste

Got Worms?

The “Worm Bin Make and Take” held on Oct. 7 at the Scrap Exchange in Durham was a great success, with 16 participants taking away 20 vermicomposting bins. The majority of participants were UNC or Duke students, and most were apartment dwellers.

“One of the best features of having a worm bin is that you can use it to compost indoors, in an apartment or other tight space,” said Muriel Williman, vermicomposting instructor. The workshop was so popular there is already a waiting list for the next one, probably to be held this coming spring.

Can’t wait till spring for worm advice from Williman? She’ll lead a worm bin workshop at the upcoming Bolin Creek Festival Saturday, in Umstead Park in Chapel Hill, at 2 p.m. A worm bin will be offered as one of the many fabulous raffle items to help raise money for Bolin Creek protection. The Solid Waste Department will also provide recycling and composting of food waste at the festival with the help of local Boy Scout Troop #9.

The festival will be preceded by a Bolin Creek cleanup led by the Town of Chapel Hill Stormwater Management Division. Contact Wendy Smith at wwsmith@townofchapelhill.org. or 969-7246 about how to help clean up along your creek or waterway.

Got Confidential Paper?

To celebrate America Recycles Day this year, Orange County Solid Waste Department sponsors the next Shred-A-Thon to recycle confidential paper on Nov. 14 at the Hampton Pointe dropoff recycling site in Hillsborough, behind Home Depot, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Shred-A-Thons enable residents of Orange County and those Chapel Hill residents whose homes are in Durham County to bring up to 10 boxes of confidential papers at no charge for shredding and recycling that day. Remove any diskettes or other plastic items or spiral binders, but staples, tape and paper clips are OK. The last Shred-A-Thon, on Oct. 8 at University Mall, hosted by the Chapel Hill Police Department, brought in 17,000 pounds of paper for recovery. If you miss the Nov. 14 event, there will be two more next April 22 and May 1, 2010.

Got interest in the future of rural waste and recycling?

The Solid Waste Plan Work Group will be meeting over the next few weeks to develop preliminary recommendations on how to improve waste and recycling management in the unincorporated parts of Orange County. Focus will be on the three elements of the existing solid waste convenience center system, rural curbside recycling collection and the possibility of establishing a more organized and regulated system for curbside collection of waste in the rural areas.

The Work Group was formed in 2005 to address solid waste planning issues facing the county and to create an integrated solid waste plan that achieves the county’s 61 percent waste reduction goal. It consists of an elected official from each jurisdiction, solid waste staff from each jurisdiction and the membership of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Board.

They group typically meets several times a year to work on various elements of the plan. Past work has included considering whether or not to construct a materials recovery facility, evaluating approaches to expansion of commercial recycling opportunities and options for management of the dropoff sites and convenience centers. In 2008 the Work Group recommended a change to dual-stream recycling that has resulted in increased collection efficiency and consequent expansion of recycling program services.

Interest in the future of the Solid Waste Convenience Centers has increased lately due primarily to the budgetary pressures that have forced service cutbacks. This has put a more immediate focus on consideration of options for a more effective set of operating and funding mechanisms for not only the centers, but also for rural solid waste and recycling overall.

Thus, for the upcoming Work Group meeting, the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Board has asked the staff to prepare technical reports and recommendations on waste and recycling collection for the unincorporated areas of the county. Those reports are available on request from the department at recycling@co.orange.nc.us or by calling 968-2788 or online at www.co.orange.nc.us/recycling and look under Solid Waste Plan Work Group.

Once the Work Group develops its initial set of recommendations for rural area solid waste management, those will be released for public review and comment. Following that comment period, the Work Group will reconvene around that topic to finalize its recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners as part of an integrated solid waste management plan.

Got Plastic Bottles?

While Orange County led the state last year in plastic bottle recycling with more than 29 pounds per person recycled, or more than 450 bottles, we still discarded an estimated 280 bottles per person, or 3 million bottles, during that year. With the new North Carolina law banning plastic bottles from landfills, you have one more reason to recycle your own bottle and help keep others on the right side of the law by urging them to recycle.

That law applies to aluminum cans, oyster shells, oil filters and wooden pallets, too.

Let me end with our usual plea — never, ever put a plastic bag, empty or full, in your recycling bin.