Recycling center to celebrate grand opening Tuesday

Posted 11/10/11

The center also will begin taking liquid latex paint. In addition, from November through January, it also will accept old strings of Christmas lights, said operations manager Mary Jo Decker.

The grand opening takes place from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., …

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Recycling center to celebrate grand opening Tuesday

Posted

Now that it is in a larger building, the Powell Valley Recycling Center will begin taking all types of recyclable plastics — No. 1 through No. 7 — for the first time on Tuesday.

Until now, the center has accepted plastic types 1 and 2 only.

The center also will begin taking liquid latex paint. In addition, from November through January, it also will accept old strings of Christmas lights, said operations manager Mary Jo Decker.

The grand opening takes place from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday with a ribbon cutting at 3:30 p.m. The event was timed to coincide with America Recycles Day, also celebrated Nov. 15.

As before, the recycling center still takes newspaper, office paper, magazines, phone books, corrugated cardboard, aluminum and steel cans, glass containers, white grocery bags, shredded paper (in bags), packing peanuts (in bags) and rechargeable batteries.

The center pays for aluminum cans, though some recyclers forego the payment as a donation to the center.

The recycling center is open from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturdays.

For those who find those hours inconvenient, it’s now easier and more convenient to drop off recyclables when the center is closed by depositing them in a trailer that sits outside the front of the center.

“It looks much nicer than the garbage containers we had in front of the old center,” Decker said.

Decker said liquid paint was added to the list of what the center will take because it can be used with a new “Posi-Shell” applicator at the landfill to spray a slurry covering over the landfill daily. The slurry is only 2 inches thick, filling far less space in the landfill than the 6 inches to 1 foot of dirt required to cover it daily, she said.

The center’s bigger space provides the additional storage room to make it possible to take the additional types of plastic now, Decker said. That space is necessary to store the bales of plastic until there is enough to send on a truck — something required for all materials the center collects.

For instance, she said, it takes 28 bales, each weighing 1,600 pounds, to make up a truck load of newspapers. Bales of shredded office paper weigh 1,200 pounds, she said.

Decker asks that recyclers make sure they drop off only recyclable materials at the center, as the center now must pay to have non-recyclable materials hauled to the landfill — a service the city provided free at the old center.

The new center is located in the county’s old road and bridge shop. Powell Valley Recycling purchased the building from the Park County Commission at a net cost of $120,000 (a 50 percent discount from its appraised value).

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