INC NEWS - solidly wasted money

Wed Aug 22 14:09:37 EDT 2007

These aren't really tough questions. First of all, we are going to
expand the hours at the hazardous waste drop-off site, but we are under
contract for a certain amount of days and we are negotiating with our
contractor for a good price for expanding the days and hours. It will
happen soon. 

Secondly, as I explained at the INC meeting, we are going to continue to
pick up yard waste as we always have simply because what we are doing
now is for the short term. I don't want to go to the single truck option
and then we get permitted and have to educate everyone to switch back.
It would be too time consuming and expensive. I don't see the savings in
going to one truck when I would have to turn around and spend the money
to re-educate when we return to the two truck system. Keep in mind, the
Council has given us the go ahead for a comprehensive program so
everyone will receive the same services and it will all be tax based. We
are looking beyond our contract with the Virginia landfill for disposal
options. We will find a cheaper way to go that is environmentally
friendly. But for now, we are under contract. Just yesterday we had a
very fruitful meeting with DENR regarding the City getting the permit
back for yard waste recycling and I think we are well on the way.
However, there are some heavy duty compliance issues that must be done
in the way of engineering that take time and funding so we are moving
forward as time and funding allows us. I will not rush forward and
repeat past mistakes. We will get it right. NO MORE FIRES AND NO MORE
FINES!!!

Thirdly, I have looked all over the solid waste industry since you
brought it up at the INC meeting and I do not see any solutions on the
horizon that would eliminate the need to utilize plastic bags for
disposal. Not using the bags would cause a tremendous litter problem.
There were folks at the meeting that night complaining about the litter
generated from folks who don't bag their garbage and when we empty the
carts it flies all over. So far in the industry the only thing I have
seen is in-home compaction of trash and those home compactors are not
cheap.

Lastly, as Mike Simpson, our Codes Enforcer has stressed, we did not
create that position to collect fines. It's more of a position to
educate. He writes citations with fines attached only when all else
fails. He does have a records keeping system and he can tell you how
many citations he has issued and how much he has collected. I think at
the meeting he was saying that he did not have that information in his
head at that moment. 

Please feel free to keep asking the questions. Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org]
On Behalf Of RW Pickle
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:11 AM
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: INC NEWS - solidly wasted money

Besides not having the extended days for hazardous waste drop off

beginning in July as we were told (by the Solid Waste Director Donald

Long), I saw something else that didn't make sense (like the bagging of

our waste in plastic bags) today that just seems like a huge waste of

taxpayer money. Redundant is a better way to think about it.

We have no yard waste/composting facility now. We may never have another

one if left to the folks who think inside the box. But as I watched my

green can and then my brown can picked up today, I was wondering why
we're

wasting the fuel to run two different trucks? Since we understand from
the

Solid Waste Director that all of our trash and yard waste gets mixed

together now (and charged at the same $39+/ton in Virginia) for
transport,

why bother with two different trucks picking the two different colored

cans up? What kind of sense does that make? In fact, we no longer even

need two different colored cans and we should be able to mix our yard

waste right in with the household waste stream at our houses. Doesn't
this

make sense? Or is just that those of us who subscribe to the yard waste

service are due some special sort of pickup of yard waste and by not

allowing it to be mixed, we cut out those who are less fortunate and are

not subscribers? I read today that Virginia is beginning to feel the
pinch

of having all of the waste hauled to landfills be composed of 25%
organic

materials (yard waste type of material).  How long can it be before the

cost of dumping it in landfills carries a premium price? Legislation is

currently in the Virginia Legislature that will tax ALL waste
transported

into Virginia. They're talking from $.25-$10 a ton. So not only is this

yet another problem, we'll see the cost of disposal go up along with

Virginias' new fee (and our taxes as well to pay for it!). We just have
to

start doing better...

We're wasting plastic bags made of petroleum to dispose of our trash (by

ordinance only because, like so many of the other regulations, they are

not enforced) and now we're wasting twice the amount of petroleum based

fuel (in the trucks) for different pickups of the different wastes. Only

to have them mixed when we get in all to the transfer station. In fact,

why do we even need a yard waste program, separate yard waste trucks,
and

even a yard waste division if mixing the two waste streams is now the

norm? Couldn't we cut the costs nearly in half by just getting rid of
that

program and its equipment altogether?

I asked our new "Solid Waste Enforcer" at a recent INC meeting how much
he

has levied in fines since his arrival (in October 2006). He didn't know

and said he didn't keep track of it. Well someone does and I'm looking
for

that figure. The whole idea behind rewriting the regulations was to
allow

for enforcement (read $$$ here and action) and that was the whole
premise

behind hiring someone. Not as some sort of educational ombudsman. We had

problems, we rewrote the regulations to get them enforced with fines,
and

where are we on that road almost a year later? For some reason I got the

impression his current role was more of an educational one and not one
of

enforcement. That's not why the rules were rewritten or that particular

job even came into being. We came to the conclusion that behavior tends
to

change when you get into someones pocketbook (with fines), not when you

help them clean out their ear wax.

Perhaps we can get our Solid Waste Director (who is on the list) to

respond. I'm going to keep asking tough questions until we get some

sensible answers.

RWP

27 Beverly

"Responsible decision making helps ensure that citizen issues and

investments embrace the concerns of neighborhoods, communities, and

society as a whole. A high-quality of living for all Americans means we

must protect the essential elements of existence, including neighborhood

and community values." RWP

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