COSHOCTON — Coshocton County Litter Prevention and Recycling is shipping collections to a new processing facility on a trial basis.
Tammi Rogers, program manager and education specialist for the agency, said they will make four or five test trips of mixed recyclables to a materials recovery facility on Ohio 13 near New Lexington that underwent recent upgrades. Previously, materials were transported to a site run by Kimble Company in Dover.
The Dover location is outside of the region for the Coshocton-Fairfield-Licking-Perry Solid Waste District. The Perry County site being within the district means there is no processing fees. However, Rogers said when travel costs such as gas and maintenance on the collections truck is factored in the projected savings is small. She estimates about $600 a quarter.
There are also concerns about winter time driving as the Dover facility is closer and a straighter route. New Lexington is about 20 miles further away and roads are curvier.
Rogers said processing fees at the Dover location have gone down recently. The county paid $23 a ton in June, as opposed to $78 a ton in June 2020. She said this was due to revenue for different recycled commodities going up. An average load is about four tons.
Cardboard is being transported to a West Rock facility in Columbus. Currently, the county is receiving $105 a ton for cardboard.
"Hopefully, it will continue this way, but everybody knows the market fluctuates. So, we just have to be happy when it's good and prepare for what you know is coming at some point," Rogers said.
Rogers reports collections are on par with 2020. So far, 278,460 pounds of mixed recyclables and carboard has been collected this year. That compares with 562,621 total pounds for all of 2020. That was up from 529,100 pounds in 2019. Collection points are located in Bakersville, Conesville, Fresno, Nellie, New Guilford, Plainfield, Tiverton, Warsaw, West Carlisle, West Lafayette and on Cedar Street and at the county garage for Tuscarawas Township.
Other collection bins are for specific use by county offices, the Coshocton County Career Center, Warsaw Elementary, Conesville Elementary and the River View main campus. Those have collected 19,400 pounds of recycling so far this year, which puts it a little off of the 42,840 pounds collected in 2020. That was way under the 71,600 pounds collected in 2019.
Rogers said the COVID-19 pandemic played a big part in those numbers. The county offices and schools numbers were down because not as many people were in buildings. The private citizen numbers were up as more people were home and devoted more time to recycling. Rogers is happy to see that's not going down.
She's also excited to get back into the schools for education programs this fall. Rogers did some virtual programs for the 2020 to 2021 school year, but she said in-person presentations resonate more with youth. Education is a major component for her as she said a lot of people don't recycle simply because they don't understand it and some who do may be discarding contaminated items because they don't know what can be recycled.
"People are still recycling and doing a pretty good job. We're seeing some contamination issues, which is the major thing with recycling. What I've seen is not quite as bad as what I've seen in years in past," Rogers said. "Overall, everyone is a doing a pretty good job of recycling in the county. You just keep banging the drum about not bagging it and there are certain things that just don't belong."