Marble – There is a large amount of false information circulating on the internet and social media that discourages recycling.
“The processing of recyclables will look different from county to county. This can be affected by the current market for recycled items, availability of vendors, transportation costs, the availability and locations of their recycling collection center containers, and a variety of other factors,” said Robert Ward, director of the Cherokee County Solid Waste Department.
Cherokee County processes all recyclable items collected for the reuse and economic benefit of local taxpayers. Cherokee County accepts clean aluminum beverage containers, cardboard boxes, clean plastic bottles and jugs without sprayer pumps, and clean glass containers across nine convenience centers throughout the county.
Once those items leave the convenience center, they are taken to the Cherokee County Landfill to be processed.
“Last year, the Cherokee County Landfill recycled approximately 1,300 tons,” Ward said.
Each type of recyclable is processed differently, and provides different environmental and economic benefits.
Aluminum recycling
Aluminum beverage cans are most often used to make new cans and require significantly less energy than making new cans from aluminum ore using a mere 5% of the energy needed compared to the 95% more energy needed to produce a can from aluminum ore.
“Aluminum beverage cans produce the highest dollar-per-pound revenue of the materials collected in Cherokee County,” Ward said.
Aluminum beverage cans should be placed into the orange aluminum recycling containers at your local convenience center.
Cardboard recycling
Cardboard recyclables make up the largest volume of all collected recyclable materials in Cherokee County, with 430 tons processed last year.
“When cardboard is recycled rather than thrown away it greatly reduces the volume of materials that end up in the landfill. This extends the life of the landfill and reduces the cost of landfill construction,” Ward said.
Once collected, cardboard is compacted into bales and then goes to the recycling plant located in Sylva to be repurposed for other cardboard and paper products. This is done at a lower cost and energy footprint when compared to manufacturing new paper products from tree pulp.
Since cardboard produces the largest volume of recycled materials it also creates the largest revenue stream of all recycled materials collected in Cherokee County. The cardboard should be broken down and placed in the yellow cardboard recycling containers at your local convenience center. Businesses may bring truckloads of cardboard to the landfill scale-house.
Plastic recycling
Recycled plastic bottles are also compacted into bales that are delivered to a plastic recycling vendor. The vendor will then separate the plastics based on their classification grade and distribute them to appropriate plastic manufacturers for reuse.
The plastic vendor used by Cherokee County does not sell plastics to be burned as fuel. Recycling also helps to reduce the volume of materials placed into the landfill similar to cardboard. Plastic recyclables can be placed in the green plastic recycling containers at your local convenience center.
Glass recycling
The glass that is collected and brought to the landfill is broken down and repurposed as gravel that will be used for base material in road construction at the Cherokee County Landfill.
“This significantly reduces the cost and need of stone gravel. Gravel costs the landfill about $26 per ton and recycled glass pays for approximately $12 per ton. Due to the weight of glass and the distance to the nearest glass recycling facility, it is not economically feasible to transport the glass for remanufacturing,” Ward said.
Because of this it is not necessary to sort glass by color, but glass does need to be clean and sorted without bags or other products. Glass products can be placed in the blue glass recycling containers at your local convenience center.
Metal & other recycling
Additionally, the Landfill accepts mixed metals including tin cans, metal fencing, wiring, metal roofing/building materials, exercise equipment, kitchen/home appliances, automotive metal parts, tools and most other predominately metal items. This is done free of charge.
White goods – such as refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, air conditioners and other items that contain Freon – must be placed in the area directed by the scale-house to allow for Freon removal and containerization. The mixed metals are compacted in a roll-off container and sent to a recycling processing plant where they are separated and repurposed into recycled products.
“This is done at a significantly lower cost and use of energy than importing or mining raw materials. The metal from recycled materials is reinvested into municipal solid waste and recycling collections programs that reduce the tax dollars necessary to support those essential public utilities,” Ward said.
Both mixed metals and white goods are sold at market prices, which vary.
Used motor oil and antifreeze that does not contain any solvents are accepted at many of the local convenience centers and the landfill for recycling free of charge. These products are then collected by a vendor for refinement.
Lead-acid car batteries, Ni-Cad cell phones, and computer batteries can be deposited at the battery shed at the landfill free of charge. The landfill is paid varying prices for these, but Alkaline batteries are not recycled and go into the landfill.
The landfill also collects and disposes of other items at a cost. Wood pallets are weighed in at $4 per 100 pounds, stored at the landfill and available to Cherokee County residents for repurposing at no cost.
Electronics are recycled and kept out of the landfill to extend the life of the landfill.
Cathode Ray Tube are in old tube-type monitors and televisions and are kept in a separate area to be sent to a specialty recycler because of mercury in the items. This is a high cost to the county but is required by law and is also better for the environment.
Tires that are collected at the landfill are transported to a disposal site for a fee. Grants are administered for qualifying counties that incur an overage charge for the management of their scrap tire disposal program. The amount received from the grants does not cover all of the expenses incurred for proper tire disposal.
Ward encourages Cherokee County members to prioritize recycling.
“Please continue to promote and participate in recycling in Cherokee County. Recycling contributes to paying the operating costs of running the landfill and convenience centers and contributes to the county budget,” he said.
“Together, we can conserve energy, reduce costs, conserve raw materials and extend the life of the existing landfill cells. What you recycle at home does have a ripple effect in your own community.”
Details: The Cherokee County Landfill is at 10160 U.S. 19 in Marble and is open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon. Call 828-837-2621.