| Over 500 Responses
to Rivanna Solid Waste Authority’s Online Survey
(Rivanna Solid Waste Authority,
Virginia)
 During
the strategic planning process, GBB conducted
a critical review of the RSWA’s services
and facilities; personally interviewed more
than 50 community stakeholders; held discussions
with the RSWA Citizens Advisory Committee;
and conducted data and document review, a detailed
technical evaluation, and benchmarking with
five communities that are similar in one or
more ways to the Charlottesville area. GBB
also developed a public opinion survey asking
residents to provide their suggestions for
improvements to current facilities and services. |
Residents of Charlottesville
and Albemarle
County, Virginia, have spoken: They
want more opportunities to recycle and
they are eager to have a more sustainable
solid waste management system,
even if it means paying more each
month.
 These sentiments were
one finding of a six-month strategic planning process
undertaken
by GBB for the Rivanna Solid
Waste Authority (RSWA). The RSWA
asked GBB to examine solid waste and
recycling services in the RSWA service
area and explore improvements to the
Authority's facilities and services that the
public will support. Joining GBB for this
project is Virginia-based Draper Aden Associates.
The
objective of the process is to reach
consensus
among
residents
and elected
officials on a viable
solid waste
management system that better serves
the needs of residents of the City of
Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and
the Town of Scottsville, as well as the
students and faculty of the University of
Virginia and other institutions and businesses
within the community.
A key question was:
What kinds of
changes would the community support?
To find out, GBB held
more than 50 individual
meetings with public officials, community
leaders, business executives and
solid waste officials. In addition, the company
organized two community meetings
in November and December 2007, and
conducted two online surveys. Based on
GBB’s in-depth assessment of facilities and
services operated by RSWA and benchmarking
with similar communities around
the country, GBB presented five possible
scenarios for consideration by the community.
These ranged from simply improving
current facilities to a fully sustainable option
with expanded recycling, a materials
recovery facility and a facility that would
burn non-recyclable solid waste materials
for fuel or electricity. The surveys asked
residents for their opinions of current facilities
as well as their preferences among
the five scenarios for the future.
RSWA received over
570 survey responses,which provided valuable input
forthe draft strategic
plan, currently under
review by officials
of the RSWA
service area. “It’s
quite simple to
summarize the
feedback we received during the community
meetings and via the online survey,”
said Harvey Gershman, GBB president. “The
message was loud and clear: do
more, spending as little as possible. Residents
want to develop a new transfer station,
provide curbside recyclables collection
to residences and businesses in urban
areas, and build a new MRF for recyclables
and C&D material. As this is done,
they want to start exploring further the
next step: a refuse derived fuel or waste-to-energy
facility for a sustainable system
that could yield up to 93% diversion.”
Videos
of both public meetings, a PDF of the presentation
made during public
meetings, and a link to the RSWA website are available
below:
Video
of December 4 Community Meeting »
Video
of November 15 Community Meeting »
Community
Meeting Presentation (PDF) »
RSWA
Press Release (PDF) »
RSWA
Strategic Plan Information Website » |
