The County Commissioners for Buncombe County, N.C., approved a measure that would allow for a construction and demolition recycling facility to handle material in parts of the county.
According to the proposal, approved May 6, the county entered an agreement with private industry to construct and operate a C & D recycling facility and compost facility at the county’s Solid Waste Management Facility.
In a presentation in front of the County Commissioners, Bob Hunter, general services director for the county, said that the justification for bringing in a private company was due to the absence of either a C&D or compost facility.
Franchising the commercial and Industrial waste stream will require all waste generated in the unincorporated areas of Buncombe County to be brought to the facility, enabling the county to contract with private industry and create a public/private partnership to recycle C&D.
The county estimates that the establishment of the C&D/compost facility will divert about 100,000 tons of waste currently being trucked to South Carolina into the BCSWMF for recycling and disposal.
More than 30,000 tons of this diverted waste will be recycled, and the remaining 70,000 tons will maintain the revenue stream required to operate BCSWMF after C&D and Composted waste are diverted from the current waste stream. The county estimates that around 80,000 tons that previously was shipped to South Carolina for disposal, will be recycled or composted with the new operation.
Haulers in the county will have to ship their material to the new facility, and charges will remain the same