CHAPEL HILL - 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.

Last week, elected officials learned 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 must update its solid waste plan every three years. The plan, among other things, shows what the county is doing to get people to throw less away.

The state requires counties to reduce their per capita garbage production by 40 percent from 1991-92 levels. Orange County has a more ambitious goal of 61 percent.

The county has now reduced its waste stream 54 percent, its highest level and the third-highest reduction in the state, according to the draft solid waste update.

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.

"Having reached 54 percent is tremendous; it really is," said Alderman Randee Haven O'Donnell, who composts at home and once ran a trial school composting program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

"I'm loving the mulching I've been doing the past couple of weeks," she said.

The draft update cautions 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 has potential.

The county generated about 49,000 tons of landfilled waste last year, according to Pollock. About 22,000 of that was commercial waste, and about 25.5 percent of that was food waste, part of a category the county calls "organics."

The county already pays a contractor to collect commercial food waste for composting. The contractor stops at 31 restaurants and other establishments three times a week and picks up waste that has been collected from the food-preparation process and from what customers leave on their plates, including their dirty napkins. Pollock estimated that's capturing about one quarter of all the commercial food waste.

Businesses in the program include restaurants Margaret's Cantina, K&W Cafeteria and Top of the Hill, Weaver Street Market and the IFC Community Kitchen. Whole Foods and some of the county's Harris Teeter supermarkets also participate.

Pollock guesses the county could double food waste collections, recycling about half of the county's commercial food waste. Some businesses are too small to make collections feasible, he said.

But expansion will have to wait for a stronger economy.

Food waste collection is at "the top of our list," once the economy improves, said Gayle Wilson, the county's solid waste director.

And not just commercial collection. Wilson said the county would like to possibly add a section to the county's convenience centers where residents could drop off their residential food waste for composting.

"I see [food waste] as a primary target once we are able to look at expanding our programs again," he said.