County finds new outlet for recyclables

Gail Dollar, of DSC Sanitation, and Gay Ervin, the county's solid waste coordinator, look through the recycling bins at DSC on Cedar King Road, which will be accepting recyclable materials of all types. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Bedford County's recycling problem appears to be over, as a local company has stepped up to keep the material from going into local landfills.

The best thing about the new arrangement is that people will not have drive to a different location to get rid of their recyclables, because the new place is right next to the old one.

DSC Sanitation at 210 Cedar King Road has agreed to accept recyclables like plastics, aluminum, metal cans, cardboard, and paper.

"They're our answer," to the county's long-standing recycling question, says Gay Ervin, the county's solid waste coordinator. "You can bring almost anything you would like to and deposit it when you leave your plastics."

The facility is right down the road from Shelbyville Recycled Fiber Company on Cedar King Road, which closed its doors several months ago, leaving the county in a quandary about what to do with recyclable trash.

Dropoff points

Trash to be recycled can be dropped off at any of the county's convenience centers, or people can bring it directly to the bins at DSC, Ervin said.

Both those living inside and outside city limits may bring their recyclables to DSC.

Gail Dollar of DSC said the firm has been in the sanitation business since 1994. Part of its waste disposal fees are based on how much DSC can recycle; an appropriate deduction is made from the bill.

Most of the Shelbyville company's business comes from handling trash from commercial businesses, according to Dollar, and DSC has been recycling cardboard since 1996.

Dollar said the firm would take its recyclables to Shelbyville Recycled Fiber Co. next door, but when that company announced they were going out of business, a new source to recycle cardboard had to be found.

Gail said the only option they thought they had was to take the cardboard to the landfill, "and we definitely did not want to do that."

In-house program

So DSC bought a bailer and began handling its own recyclables at the first of the year.

Each industry has to get rid of its paper and cardboard and recycle it in order for the county to stay in compliance with state requirements. Tennessee has targets for each county to divert part of its waste from landfills to programs such as recycling.

The county not only needs to encourage recycling, officials want to avoid the $23 per ton cost of sending recyclables to the landfill.

If the county fails to meet the state's waste diversion goals, it could lose grant funding, Ervin has explained in the past.

Possible payments

At this time, recyclable materials aren't worth much in the marketplace, Dollar said; the savings comes from diverting those materials from the landfill.

"If we can stockpile the (recyclables) we can hold it until the prices go up ....and when that happens, we can start paying people for it," she said.

People have already started visiting DSC to drop off their plastics and cardboard, Dollar said. They are only accepting plastic types 1 & 2.

Type 1 plastics include items such as two-liter soda bottles, water bottles, cooking oil bottles and peanut butter jars while type 2 are containers like detergent bottles and milk jugs. The type is indicated by a the number at the center of the triangle-shaped logo stamped into most recyclable plastic items.

Larger items

DSC is also accepting computers, televisions and other electronics for disposal, Dollar said.

Dollar said it is surprising how much a consumer can cut down on household trash by separating recyclables.

"If you take out all the plastics, bottles and cans, you really don't have a lot left," in the garbage, Ervin said.