County Looks at Expansion of Recycling Efforts

New Hanover County, North Carolina, plans to be kinder to Mother Earth.

Residents in the unincorporated parts of the county could have curbside recycling as early as March, said Ray Church, director of environmental management.

The county's plan is to divide the unincorporated county into three zones, negotiate with the county's three largest waste haulers to serve those zones and provide curbside recycling and yard waste and bulky item collection.

Such waste now has to be toted to various places in the county for disposal. That can be costly, particularly for residents who have to rent a truck to haul their recyclables. There are seven recycling centers in the county.

Mr. Church hopes to put a recycling center in or near Monkey Junction. The recycling center once located there was closed because the land was being sold.

The county's Environmental Management Department recently was denied a special use permit to place a recycling center near the Ocean Forest Lakes subdivision in the southern part of the county after residents there fought the proposed move. Though residents there favor recycling, they didn't want it near them.

"When we had to move the site at Monkey Junction, we had over 2,000 calls," Mr. Church said. "People are very passionate about recycling."

Not everyone shares that passion. Last year, only 400 tons of glass, 100 tons of plastic, 152 tons of aluminum cans, 690 tons of newspapers and 5,000 tons of cardboard were recycled in unincorporated New Hanover County.

Mr. Church said he hopes curbside service will boost those numbers.

"I've had a lot of people tell me, 'I don't recycle because it's not convenient,' " he said. "Convenience is everything."

The county plans to make curbside recycling easy by mingling recyclable materials, then hauling them to a plant in Jacksonville. There, they will be sorted in an assembly line.

"It's a lot more efficient that way," Mr. Church said.

The city of Wilmington already provides curbside recycling.

Recycling isn't the most cost-effective means of waste disposal. Right now, county residents pay for recycling through the dumping fee. That fee could go up once curbside service is available.

"We're hoping that there will be little or no increase," Mr. Church said.

Existing recycling centers will remain opened 24 hours a day for small businesses and residents of apartment complexes. – Wilmington (North Carolina) Star