The opening of a new 1,300 square foot recycling center in Green Valley should help to further support a recycling program that is already a success story for Mercer County.
County officials cut the ribbon last week on the new facility, which provides the county Solid Waste Authority’s existing recycling program additional room to expand. The local recycling program began in 1998. At the time, the county received a state grant that allowed for the construction of a smaller facility. A second state grant allowed officials to develop the new, and much larger, building.
The county also has received additional grants in recent years to help purchase new equipment needed to expand the recycling operations, including tire changers that allow workers to remove steel rims so they can be recycled; a loader and a hydro seeder that allows for the recycling of cardboard and newsprint; and recycling trailers that has allowed the program to increase the number of drop-off points for recyclable materials across the county, according to recycling center manager Jerry L. Haynes.
In the last four years, Haynes said officials have tripled their recycling tonnage to nearly 500 tons annually thanks to the cooperation of several local entities, including the city of Bluefield, the town of Athens, Concord University, Pipestem State Park, and several local schools. While the increase in recycling was welcomed, it also exceeded the storage capacity of the existing Mercer County center. That’s why a much larger recycling center was needed for the authority’s operations.
In the city of Bluefield, 20 new residents began participating in the city’s recycling program in just the last month, according to Mel Saunders, who operates the city’s recycling program. The town of Athens also has seen an increase in its recycling tonnage.
The additional space provided by the larger facility will help to ease the work load at the recycling center.
“It will help us take more stuff in and with less work,” coordinator Donnie Lucas said last week. “We’ll have a place to store it until we can (process) it. That will make it a lot easier on the employees.”
The new building, which has an interior space that is approximately two stories high, will also allow the authority to install more equipment, including a material recovery facility that can remove recyclable materials from waste.
While the county’s Solid Waste Authority Recycling Program has limited funds, it has been successful due to the efforts of those citizens who make the extra effort to separate and recycle, according to Haynes.
We applaud all of those concerned citizens who are participating in recycling programs in their individual towns and cities. We also congratulate the authority on the opening of its new and expanding recycling center. This larger facility, and the ability to expand the county’s current recycling efforts, is a win-win for all of Mercer County.
Editorials
August 26, 2010
Recycling center — Mercer program still growing
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