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Proposed recycling clearinghouse raises red flags for neighbors

fr recyclingA commercial recycling sorting plant proposed in Haywood County is being met with skepticism by neighbors, who fear it will create noise, odors and traffic for the Beaverdam community.

Recycling business starts up in Haywood

fr recyclingA new company that sorts and resells recyclable materials announced its plans this week to locate in Haywood County, adding a minimum of 30 jobs to the local economy and as many as 70 at full build out.

Swain County working toward securing trash site

swainBeginning in January, Swain County residents will no longer have 24-hour access to the county’s trash and recycling convenience center. 

Evergreen works in nationwide effort to promote carton recycling

If you ask the average person what kinds of packaging can go in the recycling bin, you’ll probably get a list full of plastic bottles, steel cans and aluminum, but paper cartons don’t usually make that off-the-cuff list.

A group of industry representatives calling itself the Carton Council of North America is hoping to change that. 

“We really do have a vision that those packages are recyclable, and we want to be sure that there is that capability in communities across the country,” said Derric Brown, sustainability director at Evergreen Packaging in Canton. 

Caught red-handed with recyclables and nowhere to pitch them? Fret no more, Sylva

Recycling receptacles are coming to downtown Sylva soon, at last giving shoppers and strollers a green option for pitching their bottles, cans, cups and last week’s copy of The Smoky Mountain News.

Dismal participation in Sylva’s recycling begs the question

fr recyclingSince the town of Sylva’s curbside recycling program was reinstated about five years ago, its participation has stagnated, with the vast majority of residents not partaking.

Haywood to sort its own recycling again — this time with machines

fr recycleableHaywood County is making plans to bring recycling operations back in-house — a move that would eventually mean dollar signs for the county.

County landfills grapple with fluorescent bulb conundrum

fr lightbulbsA compact fluorescent light bulb uses about 75 percent less energy than the old-fashioned kind and lasts up to 10 times longer. They may cost more upfront, but a net savings of $25 during the life of each bulb has spurred American households to make the switch en masse to the energy-saving bulbs in recent years.

Haywood pitches in to help towns deal with trash transport costs

Haywood County has offered a helping hand as towns grapple with how to cover the extra cost of hauling resident’s trash to the White Oak Landfill.

Starting in July, towns will have to drive trash out to the White Oak landfill near the Tennessee border. Currently, the towns transport their garbage to a transfer station in Clyde, a convenient mid-way point, and the county takes it the rest of the way to landfill. But, the county has decided to shut down the station to save money.

Rather than leaving towns in the lurch, the county will share some of the savings it realizes with the towns to help offset a portion of the extra cost they would otherwise incur.

“We want to try to minimize any negative impact,” said Mark Swanger, chair of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners. “We knew that it would likely create additional costs.”

The money will come out off the $800,000 to $900,000 in savings the county will realize after it closes the transfer station.

“There will be sufficient savings to help the municipalities,” Swanger said. “I think they are very amenable to it.”

It is unknown how much the county will chip in.

“Any amount that would reduce our costs would help,” said Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway.

The extra driving distance to the landfill will mean more gas and more hours for town trash trucks. Towns could also be forced to buy additional trucks and hire more garbage men as a result.

Realizing the additional burden it would place on towns, the county held off on closing the transfer station until summer to align with the new budget year. The county has been working through the issue with towns for more than a year.

“The cooperation between the county and towns is really important,” said David Francis, chair of the county’s solid waste committee. “We knew that it was going to be a change in the way they operate.”

The county wanted to avoid changing “all the sudden” and give towns a chance to figure how they will handle the change, he said.

The county realizes that town residents are also county residents, Francis said, and wanted to ease the burden on towns and hopefully avoid a situation where the towns would need to pass the added cost onto their residents.

The county’s scales at the transfer station have helped show towns that their garbage trucks were often not filled to capacity when dropping trash, Francis said. If the trucks carried heavier loads, they could take fewer trips to the landfill and possibly avoid the cost of new truck.

The towns are currently tabulating how much each option would cost them and must present their estimates to the county by Jan. 15. The county will decide how much it will give to the towns in May as it constructs its budget.

Recycling containers come to downtown Waynesville

No more schlepping those empty drink bottles or cans home after a day of browsing in downtown Waynesville.

A dozen recycling containers will soon be scattered around Main Street and its surrounds.

The town made the move purchase and install recycling cans based on requests from merchants as well as residents, according to Alison Lee Melnikova, the assistant town manager.

Melnikova scouted the streets and sidewalks with Downtown Waynesville Association Director Buffy Messer recently to assess where to put the new containers, but the final locations are still being decided.

The recycling containers will look similar to the public trash cans around downtown, with the vertical wood slats, but will be dark green in color and are actually made from recycled plastic, although they look like wood, Melnikova said. The recycling containers will cost the town $5,000.

For special events and festivals, DWA put out portable recycling cans, but the rest of the year, Main Street browsers faced the unfortunate conundrum of what to do with those recyclables — either toting a sticky can around or guiltily tossing it when it seems no one is looking.

Cans should be in place by early August.

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