New Recycling Carts Roll Out for OC Residents

The delivery of 7,000 blue recycling carts to residents of Orange County is underway.

Delivery began last Friday and officials are hoping to have the drop offs completed by the end of next week, barring any weather complications.

Blair Pollock is a Planner with Orange County Solid Waste, and he says there were too many variables for the county to determine who received a cart. To simplify the process, they distributed new 95-gallon capacity carts at the request of residents.

Pollock says he did not have the exact distribution locations, but many clusters of homes likely all signed up for carts – specifically homes just outside the town limits.

“They look just like an in-town [neighborhood], but they happen to be just out of town. The odds are good that the vast majority of those are going to switch,” he says. “And the odds are further good that, if 80 percent switched and the other 20 percent didn’t, there may be some that come back. We’re already starting to see a little bit of that.”

Pollock says they had 7,000 requests for new carts among the 14,200 residents who were eligible to receive them. He adds they have a small surplus for those late to decide they would like to have a recycling cart.

“We ordered about 500 more carts than we had orders for,” he says. “We’re hopeful we’ll be able to fill most of the request for people now.

“Otherwise, between the possible expansion of the routes [depending upon the budget] and if there’s a bigger second request for carts, we’ll try to order some more next fiscal year.”

Pollock says the new carts, which have a capacity of more than five of the recycling bins county residents are currently using, will increase efficiency of recycling in the area. He adds the infrastructure is in place to handle the additional waste.

“The markets are reasonably good for all of these materials,” he says. “North Carolina, in particular, has a very robust plastic recycling industry.”

Residents can begin using their recycling carts immediately upon receiving them, and the pickup service will operate on a bi-weekly schedule. Pollock says if the lid of your cart does not fit properly upon arrival, it should conform back to the correct shape in less than 48 hours.

Residents can choose to keep their bins to use as intermediate, or overflow, storage. They may also return their bins to the convenience centers where they currently deposit their recycling.

And there will be no change for residents who chose to continue recycling with their bins and manually dropping off at the convenience centers.