Disposal discussions

There’s some dump-bound trash from the towns of Orange and Gordonsville that claims Orange County landfill space without paying for it. And county officials may soon make changes so that the expense for dumping town-generated commercial trash is covered by the entity that sent it there.
Currently, trash collected in the Town of Orange by town-owned trucks and in Gordonsville by a private contractor, includes household garbage from residents and trash from town businesses. Residents pay their share for trash that winds up in the Orange County landfill when they pay taxes. Commercial trash from county businesses is charged for its landfill use after it’s weighed on site. But taxes paid by businesses in the towns don’t cover the expense of commercial trash disposal.
“The current setup is that we do not charge either town a fee for waste and/or construction debris that they deliver to the landfill,“ Orange County Director of Public Works Kurt Hildebrand explained. 
At an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting earlier this year, county officials discussed making changes to the longstanding arrangements between the two towns and the county that would ensure that every ton of trash brought to the landfill is paying for itself.
District 1 Supervisor Mark Johnson said county officials hope to develop a better system that accurately accounts for every ton of trash that goes into the landfill, and that every commercial entity which generates trash is paying for it.
“It’s not fair to businesses in the county that have to pay for everything [they send to] the landfill,“ Johnson said.
Gordonsville Town Manager Sabrina Martyn said the county’s longstanding arrangement with Gordonsville for landfill use is based on the volume of garbage-household or commercial-that’s brought to the landfill.
Orange Town Manager Cole Hendrix said he’s aware that while the town isn’t required to pay anything to the county currently for landfill use, that agreement may change sooner or later.
What that means for town officials is the development of an accurate system by which to discern town residents’ trash from town businesses’ trash. That could get tricky, Hendrix said, because frequently, Town of Orange trash trucks contain both types of garbage simultaneously.