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Friday, March 29, 2024

Commissioners talk trash, SUP revisions, plastic bags

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GreenWavePoised to assume two seats on the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, commissioners-elect Skip Watkins and Rob Zapple address three local environmental issues the board could face during the next four years.

“When people hear special use permit, they think Titan.”

The New Hanover County Planning Board proposed changes to bring clarity to the special use permitting process, sometimes criticized as confusing and uninviting to business, for commissioners to consider during a June 2 meeting. A split 2-2 vote constituted a denial of the changes, which could be brought before the board again.

Both Watkins and Zapple said they would approve the planning board’s recommendation, which included a more predictable timeline for submission and review of a special use permit application and use of specific codes for industrial categories in the table of permitted uses.

Watkins wondered if the controversy surrounding the proposed changes stemmed from concern about cement company Titan America’s interest in New Hanover County.

“When people hear special use permit, they think Titan. Titan’s process was not going to be streamlined by any regulatory favoritism or anything,” Watkins said. “[The planning board’s recommendation] was common sense. It would allow business people with a good model to move forward and be successful and create jobs.”

Zapple wants two changes in addition to the planning board’s recommended modifications to prevent existing operations from expanding on adjacent property without a preliminary county review and to require a review of potential external effects before permits are granted. He said he realized those requests make him seem anti-business, but said environmentally sound decisions do not have to pose a problem for business.

“I’m a businessman. I use cement in my job every day,” said Zapple, who works as a general contractor. “I understand you can be pro-environment and pro-business.”

“You see a garbage truck driving down the road. … We as a community can look at that and say, ‘Oh, there’s 10 tons of money.’”

For more than a year, commissioners considered proposals to haul municipal solid waste outside New Hanover County to preserve existing space in the county landfill, expected to last 45 years with no change in operational practices. The board split in a 2-2 vote on hauling proposals during a June 16 meeting. The county will focus on waste diversion through household recycling and construction and demolition debris recycling while it continues to use the landfill.

Watkins said hauling waste to other counties could deter citizens from recycling, which he sees as an important solution to preserving limited space in the county landfill.

“My current position is to focus on our landfill, use our landfill, but encourage countywide recycling. That’s my goal. I ultimately want curbside recycling,” Watkins said.

Zapple said the amount of recyclables generated by the city and county combined could attract a materials recovery facility to the area, which could save money by eliminating the transport of collected recyclables to other facilities to be separated and prepared for use by manufacturers. Other efforts, he added, including diversion of discarded building materials and yard waste and installation of a methane gas recovery system, could translate into more money reaped from the landfill.

“You see a garbage truck driving down the road. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, there’s 10 tons of trash,’ when we as a community can look at that and say, ‘Oh, there’s 10 tons of money.’ What we call solid waste has all these abilities to create revenue, when managed properly,” Zapple said.

Watkins agreed that both household recyclables and recycled building materials like carpet, gypsum and metal could be sold to offset solid waste disposal costs.

“Let the market take over.”

A years-long effort by the Cape Fear chapter of the Surfrider Foundation hopes to secure support from county officials for a policy to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics. The effort recently gained momentum when the Carolina Beach Town Council unanimously agreed to appoint an ad-hoc committee to investigate the local impact of plastic bags.

Zapple and Watkins both said they prefer to let businesses make decisions on plastic bags based on consumer demand.

“It’s well-documented the amount of damage they do to a coastal environment, causing life-threatening issues for wildlife. I get that, but I think the appropriate way to approach it is through economics,” Zapple said. “In other words, let the market take over.”

Watkins agreed, listing Whole Foods as an example of a company voluntarily eliminating plastic bags.

“I really don’t have a stance for or against plastic bags. I think the marketplace should ultimately decide what they will support. That’s the ultimate choice. We vote every day by where we spend our money,” Watkins said.

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