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Town officials to push for recycling grant; residents asked to participate in program
By Emily Elders
Sylva Public Works Director Dan Schaeffer urged town officials to help spread the word about the town’s recycling program and an upcoming grant application.
Speaking during Thursday’s (Jan. 18) town board meeting, Schaeffer said the town’s voluntary recycling plan, which began in October, hasn’t taken off the way officials had hoped it would. Of roughly 1,200 households, fewer than 80 are participating.
“We’re at about a 13-percent participation rate now, and our goal for 2007 is to get up to 20 percent,” he told town officials. Even with so few participants, he said the town is removing approximately 800 pounds of recyclables per week from the solid waste stream.
The program requires households to purchase two bins, one for fiber and one for all other recyclables, which are picked up on scheduled trash pickup days. The bins cost a total of $25 and come with lids.
“Most people don’t realize that 80 percent of what we throw away every day could be recycled,” said Schaeffer.
Most paper products, as well as plastics, glass, and some aluminum, can be recycled. Food waste, or paper products which have come into contact with foods, usually should be thrown away. The town only requires that paper be separated from other recyclables, and prefers that recyclables not be bagged, so there is a minimum of effort involved, said Schaeffer.
Town officials said they had also been thinking of ways to get more people involved in the program. Town Manager Jay Denton cited a recent conversation with board member Stacy Knotts about reducing the cost of the bins or providing incentives for people to purchase them.
“I know it doesn’t sound like much, but for some households that extra $25 can be a lot,” Denton said. “There might be some way we could reduce that so that people who want to recycle can do so. There’s probably several demographics out there that we’re just not hitting yet.”
Schaeffer agreed, but said a plan would need to be in place to ensure accountability so that the bins were actually used.
“That’s why we charged for them originally,” he said. “It isn’t that we need the $25. Recovering the cost of the bins isn’t so much of a problem, but we figured that if people had a vested interest in it, they’d be more likely to actually participate.”
Another suggestion was made by Sylva resident Marie Leatherwood, who said that she had not yet joined the recycling program because of difficulty with pickups.
“I can barely get the trash all the way down (to the curb),” she said. “It’s hard for some people to carry out more than one can.”
Schaeffer explained to her and board members that his crew does special pickups when necessary, and that they were willing to go the extra mile to pick up the bins if it meant getting more participants.
Denton and Schaeffer agreed to work on forming a recycling committee to address the issues, and encouraged comments, questions and concerns both from board members and residents.
“If people want to let us know what would make the program more accessible, they should by all means help us with the process,” said Schaeffer.
Concerns can be directed to Schaeffer at Town Hall, 83 Allen Street, by phone at 586-2719, or by e-mail at dschaeffer@townofsylva.org.
The town is currently drafting a proposal for a Community Waste Reduction and Recycling grant from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The $25,000 grant would require 10-percent matching funds from the town, and is awarded to towns that provide model recycling programs, encourage educational programs, and increase public awareness of the importance of recycling and its benefits both to the natural environment and to the town.
Schaeffer will work with Western Carolina University personnel to develop the grant and a possible program of education within the school system, as well as continuing town plans to develop a commercial pickup as well. He pointed out that the university is one of the county’s largest waste producers.
According to the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which was enacted July 1, 2006, to outline waste management goals for the county and the towns of Dillsboro, Webster, Sylva, and Forest Hills, 40 percent of the county’s waste comes from residential households. Commercial waste runs a close second, however, and 10,442 tons of non-residential waste were produced in 2005.
Of those, 1,149 tons were generated by WCU, the largest amount except for the GDS pickups made at commercial sites throughout the county. Other institutions which contributed significant amounts of waste included ConMet (Cashiers Plastics), Wal-Mart, and Harris Regional Hospital.
“That’s the biggest immediate impact we can have with this – reducing the waste stream,” said Schaeffer. “It’s my hope that we can provide the kind of program that other towns and organizations can use as a model for their own in the future.”
Some of the goals included in the county’s plan are covered in the grant Sylva is applying for, particularly in the areas of public outreach and education.
The SWM plan, which covers 10 years of county-wide waste reduction goals and planning, is available online at http://solidwaste.jacksonnc.org.
“We’ve got to do something about this soon,” said Schaeffer. “Our kids and grandkids aren’t going to have any space left, for waste or anything else, if we don’t start looking at new ways to do this.”
Sylva had a mandatory recycling program in place from 1999 until 2003, when town leaders rescinded the ordinance requiring residents to recycle due to cost constraints. Then-town Manager Richard MacHargue said at the time that “maintaining efficient cost-effective service was no longer possible.” The town was then outsourcing recycling pickups to Country Collections, and officials said they were unable to locate another provider to continue pickup. Town leaders decided to move to in-house trash pickups but said they couldn’t afford to continue recycling collection.
Sylva now picks up the recycling along with its regular trash pickups, in town-owned vehicles.
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