The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved a draft solid waste plan in December 2007. The draft plan is being reviewed by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to comply with state planning and environmental laws.

The Board of Commissioners will approve a final solid waste plan after the draft plan is approved by ARC and DCA, but the plan’s provisions won’t happen until 2009, at the earliest.

Commissioners tasked its Solid Waste Advisory Committee, a group of 50 citizens, with developing the 300-page plan. This committee spent more than 3,000 hours and gathered input from more than 5,000 county residents through numerous surveys and meetings.

The two-year study indicated that present methods have been ineffective in controlling: excessive rate increases, service quality, traffic congestion, air pollution, illegal dumping and service duplication. State laws requiring a 23-percent waste stream reduction by 2017 along with public requests prompted the addition of new recycling services.

The new plan will divide unincorporated Gwinnett into eight service areas and the County will use a public, competitive process to choose one trash hauler for each area. To reduce illegal dumping, property owners will be required to use the service that will include weekly pickups of trash and large items along with 35 recyclable materials. The collection service fee will be billed once a year on the annual property tax bill.

More information is available online at www.gwinnettcounty.com.