When Bay Disposal & Recycling shut down its recycling processing line last October, it resulted in 25 lost jobs in Hampton.
The company reported that data to the Hampton Planning Commission last week in a petition to city planners to amend its current use permit.
Bay Disposal has facilities in Norfolk, Smithfield and in Hampton’s Copeland Industrial Park, near the Newport News line. The company collects recyclables from localities and businesses.
The facility is permitted to accept and sort recyclable materials and construction debris.
The expanded permit would allow the company to accept food waste, trash and junk. Once there, the business could sort and bale or have temporary storage until it could be moved to a landfill or a plant that converts trash to energy.
It also would allow the company to add four rehires, according to planning meeting documents.
The company closed the recycling processing facility because “it became too (cost) prohibitive to process the recyclables for the value of the commodities you received in return,” Emmett Moore, the district manager, said in an email.
“It made better business sense to deliver the material to a third party for processing,” he added. “The equipment is mothballed for now so we will see what the future holds.”
The decline in the global recycling market also affected Hampton’s solid water services to residents. On July 1, fees increased to $7.25 a week for households that recycle and up to $13 for all others.
The Hampton Planning Commission voted last week to recommend the expanded use permit for Bay Disposal with 10 conditions. The final decision is in the hands of the City Council.
Hampton EDA seeks best ideas to redevelop former Quality Inn parcel
The Hampton Economic Development Authority has issued a call for the best ideas to reinvigorate a roughly 7.2-acre vacant parcel and former site of a Quality Inn.
The request for proposals has been listed on the city’s website and the bid is open until Nov. 15.
The parcel with the now boarded-up hotel is at the intersection of W. Mercury Boulevard and Coliseum Drive. On it is an empty strip mall at 1929 Coliseum Drive that once was home to 11 businesses.
Last year, Hampton shifted capital from its general fund to enable the EDA to make a $5.6 million property acquisition from Mercury Hospitality LLC, the parent company for the Quality Inn.
The sale included all the long-term leases that had suites in the strip mall, plus a rented roof space at 1805 W. Mercury Blvd., once used by cellular provider T-Mobile.
Hampton has long wanted to improve its hotel stock to be ready to attract customers for its burgeoning sports tourism industry.
A pre-bid meeting for those who registered is set for 9 a.m. Thursday at the EDA conference room, in the Ruppert Sargent Building at 1 Franklin St.
Additional information is available at hampton.gov/bids.