RecyclingMonster - A second packer truck for the Coshocton County recycling program will allow the county to make a profit on cardboard recycling, instead of paying for it.
Commissioners expect to get a second packer truck sometime this summer at a cost of about $150,000. Purchase of the truck was already factored into long term planning by the Coshocton-Fairfield-Licking-Perry Solid Waste District. The truck will primarily be used to take cardboard to a WestRock Recycling Center in Columbus. It will also serve as a backup to the main truck.
When the WestRock paper mill was open locally, the factory would take local cardboard for recycling at no charge. When the plant closed in 2015, corrugated cardboard started going to a Kimble Recycling and Disposal site in Dover. The county pays about $80 a ton now to drop-off the cardboard in Dover. Fees fluctuate, but currently the Columbus recycling site is paying about $40 a ton, as the company can use the cardboard to produce products.
Commissioner D. Curtis Lee said driving to Columbus instead of Dover is just an extra 30 minutes and the little more in gas and time would certainly be offset by what they will be paid. Funding will go back into the recycling program for operations.
Tammi Rogers, program manager and education specialist for Coshocton County Recycling and Litter Prevention, said the new truck will allow them to keep the cardboard separated and clean so it doesn't get contaminated from the mixed recycling. The amount of cardboard received can fluctuate based on how much people are dropping off and if it's contaminated.
County recycling locations now feature a second bin for corrugated cardboard. Boxes must be broken down and slid through a slot. Rogers said cardboard has to be clean, meaning items like used pizza boxes with grease on the bottom would not be recyclable. Cereal boxes, tissue boxes, egg cartons and other such items are made of what is called paperboard and would be part of mixed recycling with plastics, aluminum and steel cans and paper.
"Generally speaking, if you look at the edge, you'll see two pieces of cardboard and then what looks like a wavy piece in between it. That would be the corrugated cardboard," Rogers said of boxes.
In the summer of 2018, the program switched to new recycling trailers and a packer truck similar to a garbage truck thanks to funding from the CFLP Solid Waste District. Rogers said recycling increased about 33 percent in the county from 2018 to 2019.
The basic mission of the office is to comply with recycling and litter prevention guidelines set forth by the solid waste district. This includes making sure at least 90 percent of the population has access to recycling in some way. For Coshocton, that’s 12 drop off locations in the county and other sites at the Coshocton County Engineer’s Office, Coshocton County Career Center and River View High School.
The recycling location in Canal Lewisville moved earlier this month to the Coshocton County Maintenance Building on Ohio 621. Rogers said the move was made due to illegal dumping at the former location. The new site has easier access, is well lit and monitored by cameras.
For any questions or more information on the county recycling program, contact Rogers at 740-575-4813 or go to coshoctoncounty.net/recycle.