Beginning on Monday, Polk County residents will be able to drop off their recyclables in three different locations throughout the county.
Polk County recently received a truck and bins to begin a mobile recyling unit, which will be located in Tryon on Mondays, in Saluda on Tuesdays and in Green Creek on Wednesdays.
The unit will begin picking up recyclables today at the parking lot across from the Tryon Presbyterian Church at Harmon Field. The unit will be there every Monday from 7 a.m. until noon.
On Tuesdays the unit will travel to Saluda and will be at the corner of U.S. 176 and Ozone Drive in the Tickle Family Health Center parking lot from 7 a.m. to noon.
On Wednesdays the unit will be located at the Green Creek Fire Department, also from 7 a.m. to noon.
The Polk County Board of Commissioners recently heard a presentation from Roulettei Gildersleeve with the Polk County Recyling Board regarding the recycling unit and its schedule.
Gildersleeve told commissioners after two years of hard work the recycling advisory board determined that a mobile system would be the most cost effective and convenient way to increase recycling numbers for Polks rural community. The county received grants to help with the purchase of the truck and bins, including funding from the Polk County Community Foundation and the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention.
Commissioners commented they are pleased with the slogan for the county’s new mobile recycling unit, “putting our waste to work.”
Gildersleeve said that a landfill is just thata landfill.
“Biodegradability is a moot point,” she said.
Todays standards require a clay or plastic liner, soil covered cells, storm water drainage, leachate and methane collection systems and in the end, when the land is full, a cap, she said.
“Cover this with two feet of compacted soil that can be planted only with shallow root system plants like grass and eeek kudzu (hey, its good for something) and what you have is one big plastic garbage bag to keep out moisture, air, sunshine and biodegradation,” said Gildersleeve. “Monitor that baby for approximately 30 years, find the leaks, fix the leaks, find the leaks, etc. and there you have it: one big plastic leaky garbage bag that is full of 110-year-old heads of lettuce wrapped in readable 1970 headlines.”
With landfill space at a premium and environmental concerns elevated, recycling is financially, morally, and ecologically the only way to go with our mountains of garbage, she said.
The unit was made possible through the grants and savings from the Sunny View Elementary School addition project, so the county will also provide additional trailers at the Polk County High School, Polk County Middle School and Tryon Elementary School. Saluda, Polk Central and Sunny View Schools materials will be collected and stored for pickup.
The mobile recycling unit will consist of two containers; one for plastic bottles with a neck smaller than their body, aluminum and steel cans, green, brown and clear glass and another bin for all non-wax coated mixed paper such as cardboard, magazines, newspaper, junk mail and cereal boxes.
Bruce Tessner has been hired as the countys mobile recycling unit attendant and will help residents with their recycling items. Residents are encouraged to bring clean, lidless containers and flattened boxes to help reduce problems and costs of transport.
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