landfill
From the OrangeChat blog:
UPDATE: Preserve Rural Orange HAS POSTPONED tonight's meeting on plans for a solid waste transfer station due to the weather.
The meeting is NOW scheduled for 7 p.m. SUNDAY MARCH 15 at the White
Cross Recreation Center, 1800 White Cross Road west of Carrboro.
Speakers include Orange County Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson. At
citizens' urging, the county is now looking at alternatives to a
transfer station such as hiring a contractor to haul trash to another
area outside the county and possibly exploring waste to energy
technology, although offiicals have previously said the county did not
generate enough trash to make that feasible.
Date:
Sunday, March 15, 2009 - 3:00pm
Location:
White Cross Recreation Center, 1800 White Cross Road
Among other things on the County Commissioners agenda tonight the siting of the proposed waste transfer station. John Rees, an avid cyclist who lives in Dogwood Acres, is there and posting updates via Twitter. Here are his updated posts in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest):
I was in my house a couple Saturdays ago and I heard something outside and I assumed it was the mailman putting mail in the box. Then a bit later I heard something again. Why would the mailman come twice? So I went out and looked and in addition to the mail in the mailbox there was a nearly 1,200 page phone book on my stoop.
And then again the other day I came home from work and there was another phone book on my stoop, this one over 1,200 pages.
How can it be legal for people to come to your house and put a big, heavy thing that you didn't ask for on your doorstep? Can I get rid of it by putting it on someone elses doorstep?
I can see getting one phonebook a year, although that probably wouldn't be necessary for many people if it all is online somewhere. But I've gotten four phonebooks in the last 15 months and most of them will go straight into the recycle pile. It seems like it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they wouldn't bring them in the first place.
A short story posted today on WRAL.com describes how Durham has entered into an agreement to install internal combustion engines and generators at their landfill. Duke Energy will subsequently buy the power generated which is estimated to be sufficient to serve 1600 homes.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday that a deal with
Methane Power Inc. will allow Charlotte-based Duke Energy to begin
buying up to two megawatts of power generated by the landfill beginning
next year.
- WRAL.com: Duke to turn Durham landfill gas into electricity, 8/7/08
Wouldn't it be nice if Orange County did something similar (which a number of OP posters have been advocating for over the last several years) and then specifically directed the funds generated by the sale of those rights to improvements to the Rogers Road community? It would at least be a start to repaying those folks for the sacrifices they have borne.
The elephant in the room that nobody is talking about... factoring rising fuel costs into the equation.
It's mindnumbing that an area that prides itself on sustainability would even be considering a program to export it's own waste. The very definition of sustainability is something that can be maintained into the indefinite future. Is paying to haul waste out of county sustainable in any sense of the word? Is increasing transportation miles at the end of a product's long transportation chain to get to the consumer even sane?
What percentage of trash in the current landfill comes from UNC? What percentage comes from Chapel Hill and Carrboro? What percentage comes from elsewhere in the county? Maybe each district should be required to sustainably deal with it's own waste.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro have sustainable community as their vision. Carolina North has as it's stated vision: "This and other progressive measures will help make Carolina North a model of sustainability — a campus that is socially, environmentally, and economically sound."
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