Title
Vote on a Request to Approve the Updated Solid Waste Ordinance
Abstract
Action Requested: Vote on a Request to Approve the Updated Solid Waste Ordinance
Introduction & Background: Currently, the Solid Waste and Recycling division (SWR) uses various ordinances and policies to manage solid waste in the county, along with state and federal rules and regulations. The current Chatham County ordinances and policies include the Solid Waste Ordinance last updated in 1993, the fee ordinance last updated in September 1998, the Decal Policy last updated in November 2005, the Materials Acceptance Policy last updated in 2009, and the Construction and Demolition Ordinance last updated in 2010. These needed to be updated and it made sense to incorporate them all into a single ordinance document. An effort was begun in 2009 to update and combine ordinances, but this was not completed. The attached ordinance combines all the above ordinances into one document, modernizes and clarifies the language in the various ordinances, uses a common set of definitions and adds content that reflects current departmental practices.
Discussion & Analysis: Many of these ordinances and policies had not been updated in decades. They needed to be updated to reflect current solid waste management language, departmental structure, practices, and procedures. For example, there were references to the "Public Works Director" being over SWR, which is no longer the case, and collection centers were once called "green box sites" because of the small, front-loaded dumpsters that used to be at various sites around the county. By combining the various ordinances and policies into one ordinance, both staff and the public can more easily find the rules for managing solid waste in Chatham County.
Major Additions
None of the previous ordinances and policies discussed the full range of services offered at the main facility, e.g. yard waste collection, scrap tires, electronics, etc. These a...
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