This article was originally published in The Walton Reporter on 8/13/13.
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County Solid Waste Center to Expand
By Cori O'Connor
WALTON — Delaware County's solid waste management center is preparing to expand its recycling facility within the coming year to three times its current size. Susan McIntyre, solid waste director, and Tony Vespro, solid waste management supervisor, say they hope that the expansion will allow them to double the volume of recyclables and lower the residual, landfill-bound waste from 24 percent to a single-digit number. |
McIntyre explained that recycling has been evolving over the years as a result of both technology and world-wide demand. She said the county began recycling film plastic (the material plastic grocery bags are made out of) this year and began recycling rigid plastics last year. The recycling facility separates and bails the recycled material and then sells it in a commodity market. As the recycling facility expands in the coming year, the variety of material they are able to recycle will continue to increase, resulting in an increase in revenue as well as a decrease in the residual rate, the material being added to the landfill.
Currently, the recycling center uses a hybrid recycling system mixed between a co-mingled method (where bottles, cans, glass, plastic and metal can all be recycled together) and a source-separated method (where different types of paper need to be recycled separately.) The new recycling center will accommodate the co-mingled and source-separated methods as well as a more modern method known as "single stream" where consumers can recycle everything from paper to bottles together and it will all be separated at the recycling center.
"Single stream will do a lot of things. It's easier on the consumer because they don't have to presort at home. It's easier on us because everything comes in and gets put into one," Vespro said. "By doing it that way, less goes to the landfill."
With the implementation of single stream recycling, the center will begin using more machines. "Right now we're completely manual. We're going to go to semi-automated with the new operation so some of the activities we do by hand now will be done by machine in the new facility," explained McIntyre. "We're not proposing to change our labor force. What we're proposing to do is take the staff who before had done something that a machine is going to do, they're going to do something else so we can expand the product line that we take."
According to McIntyre, the facility, funded by a capitol reserve fund, will also have a larger receiving area which will allow it to accommodate commercial haulers and tractor trailer loads, both of which the facility is too small to receive currently. McIntyre said a lot of money will be saved as a result of the single stream recycling, which will allow the private haulers to collect all recyclables at once, and the ability for the recycling center to receive fewer, larger loads as opposed to frequent smaller ones.
Resources for Industry, a work, training and placement program that's a part of the ARC of Delaware County has partnered with the Solid Waste Management Center to provide workers since 1992. Vespro described the relationship with RFI as a "good marriage."
"The ideal thing here is to rotate them out of here so they can go on to do other things," Vespro said. "I think the world of them. They're great workers."
The RFI workers are on yearly contracts with Delaware County and the different individuals remain in the program for varying amounts of time. Michael McNamara of Stamford has been a part of the program for five years. "Anything that's a challenge I love to do," McNamara said.
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RFI workers separate cardboard on a conveyor belt to be packed into bails. Pictured are Dale Anderson (middle) of Sidney, David Eckert (left) of Hancock and Cory Tatton (right) of Hamden. Photo by Cori O'Connor.
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"Single stream will do a lot of things. It's easier on the consumer because they don't have to presort at home. It's easier on us because everything comes in and gets put into one," Vespro said. "By doing it that way, less goes to the landfill."
With the implementation of single stream recycling, the center will begin using more machines. "Right now we're completely manual. We're going to go to semi-automated with the new operation so some of the activities we do by hand now will be done by machine in the new facility," explained McIntyre. "We're not proposing to change our labor force. What we're proposing to do is take the staff who before had done something that a machine is going to do, they're going to do something else so we can expand the product line that we take."
According to McIntyre, the facility, funded by a capitol reserve fund, will also have a larger receiving area which will allow it to accommodate commercial haulers and tractor trailer loads, both of which the facility is too small to receive currently. McIntyre said a lot of money will be saved as a result of the single stream recycling, which will allow the private haulers to collect all recyclables at once, and the ability for the recycling center to receive fewer, larger loads as opposed to frequent smaller ones.
Resources for Industry, a work, training and placement program that's a part of the ARC of Delaware County has partnered with the Solid Waste Management Center to provide workers since 1992. Vespro described the relationship with RFI as a "good marriage."
"The ideal thing here is to rotate them out of here so they can go on to do other things," Vespro said. "I think the world of them. They're great workers."
The RFI workers are on yearly contracts with Delaware County and the different individuals remain in the program for varying amounts of time. Michael McNamara of Stamford has been a part of the program for five years. "Anything that's a challenge I love to do," McNamara said.
Russel Thurston, production supervisor of the Delaware County ARC, said he strives to teach the workers "quality work, pace, skills and to prepare them for a job in the community."
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