I spent a couple of hours with the folks cleaning up Rogers Road Saturday (and have the bug bites to prove it). It was a rare collaboration between the county and the historically black community which has long had to deal with the odor, vermin and water and septic problems it blames on living next to the county dump.

More than 70 volunteers turned out. They fanned out through the woods targeting more than 30 illegal dump sites. How successful were they? Very, says solid waste educator Muriel Williman.

Total trash collected (to be landilled): 2,440 lbs, just over 1 ton.

Total material diverted: (to be recycled): 3,860, just under 2 tons.

Recycling rate: 61 percent.

That's impressive, Williman says. Even more so was the spirit of the volunteers,  "I'm having fun," said 13-year-old Deja Covington of Mebane (above), deer stepping through the briars with her mom and two sisters.  "We don't usually help out like this. It feels good to pay back to the community."

Now, if I could just get the welts on my legs to stop itching ...

Look for more on the Rogers Road area cleanup in Wednesday's Chapel Hill News.    

The next time Orange County leaders talk about reducing the county’s waste stream by going after the “low-hanging fruit” they just might mean literal fruit -- and moldy bread and rotten veggies.

Elected officials learned last week that Orange County has gained another two years on the life of the landfill on Eubanks Road. It’s now expected to last until 2013.

They also learned that the single biggest source of commercial garbage brought to the county landfill last fiscal year – 25.5 percent – was food waste.

“It seems like we have a huge opportunity,” said Carrboro Alderman Sammy Slade.

“It seems like one of these low-hanging fruits we need to push on,” Chapel Hill Town Council member Jim Ward told county staff. “And I encourage you to push.” 

The county has now reduced its waste stream 54 percent, its highest level. But with the county poised to start shipping waste to a Durham transfer station when the landfill closes, some leaders wanted to know if they could reduce that more by finding even more to recycle.

County staff caution that it’s unlikely the county can squeeze much more time out of the landfill. The recent gain came from the way the garbage has settled and more efficient compacting.

“It’s an imprecise science,” said solid waste planner Blair Pollock. “It’s the nature of garbage.”

Still, food waste recycling has potential. Read more about this in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

Just picked up a flier at Weaver Street for tonight's meeting of the county commissioners. The county is scheduled to discuss the search for a solid waste transfer station (not to make a decision as the flier says, as far as we know).

Folks who have been asking the county to explore hauling trash to a regional transfer station or to dispose of waste through alternative technologies are likely to be disappointed. A report prepared for the meeting says the first would cost significantly more than hauling trash to one of two sites in White Cross. The report says the second idea is just not practical.

Meanwhile, the county has bought itself some time. The county landfill on Eubanks Road, which was expected to reach capacity in mid-2011, now appears to have enough space to last until mid-2012.

The county gained the additional year by asking UNC to redirect garbage, using an alternative daily cover that takes up less space than dirt, buying a better waste compactor to compress garbage at the landfill and by banning residential cardboard as of last November.

Tonight's meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestad Road in Chapel Hill.

Orange County's elected leaders agreed to form a work group next month to figure out how to expand sewer service on Rogers Road, the historically black neighborhood next to the Orange County landfill on Eubanks Road.

Neighborhood leader The Rev. Robert Campbell spoke to the Assembly of Governments Thursday night. The assembly is a periodic gathering of elected officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange County and Hillsborough.

"For 37 years we have borne the burden of your trash," Campbell said. He demanded the group develop a timeline for funding the entire cost of water and sewer connections to those homes without them as compensation for living with the noise, dust and smell of the nearby garbage dump.

In truth, elected leaders were already heading in that direction.The town of Chapel Hill's recently completed Rogers Road Task Force report recommended an intergovernmental group be formed to come up with a funding plan.

Still, Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt, who served on the task force, said afterward that Campbell knows not to take anything for granted.    

"I think over 30 years he's learned you don't ever stop stoking the fire," Kleinschmidt said. "I respect him for doing that. I think they need to do that." 

Most of the Rogers Road area is served with water from the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. Extending sewer to the east side of the road (the west has been annexed by Carrboro) would cost an estimated $1.3 million to nearly $4.2 million.

That doesn't count individual connection costs, which the report says homeowners would have difficulty paying.