Published: July 01, 2007 10:26 pm      

EPPC gives Ashland recycling grant

ASHLAND — Ashland residents will have a chance to go green with their garbage later this year thanks to a state grant to begin a city recycling program.

The Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet named Ashland among this year’s recycling grant recipients paid out of the Kentucky Pride Fund. Ashland will receive $20,008 from the state to be matched by the city.

The grant, according to Solid Waste Superintendent Jim Wheeler, will go toward purchasing single drop-box containers. The containers will be placed at three locations throughout the city for residents to drop off their recyclable.

Two of the locations have already been selected, Wal-Mart and Clyffeside Park. A third location, planned for South Ashland, has not yet been selected. Wheeler said the containers haven’t been purchased yet and may take four to six weeks to obtain.

He said the containers will be single-stream, meaning residents do not need to separate the materials. Newspaper, cardboard, other waste papers, plastics, and aluminum will be accepted. No glass will be accepted at the drop boxes, Wheeler said. Nor will tires or household hazardous materials.

Wheeler said Ashland hopes to pay part of its match in funds saved by reducing the amount of trash it pays to dump in a local landfill.

In fact, the grants are aimed at encouraging cities and counties to work together to create programs and to reduce the amount of solid municipal waste going into landfills each year by enhancing Kentucky’s recycling infrastructure.

Officials also hope to boost the state’s household recycling rate to well above the national average of 28.5 percent. Kentucky’s current rate is 27 percent.

In addition to Ashland, 25 other recycling programs throughout the state will also received grant awards ranging from $369,100 to $2,360. In all, the state gave out approximately $2.3 million in grants from the Kentucky Pride Fund, according to the EPPC.

The fund, expanded by the General Assembly in 2006 to include funding for recycling, collects a $1.75 fee for every ton of municipal solid waste disposed of in Kentucky landfills.

In addition to finding a third drop-off location, Ashland will also be focusing on public education in the coming weeks, Wheeler said.

“The main thing is trying to get everybody on board to start recycling,” he said. “We’re trying to make it as convenient as we can for the public to do so.”

Curbside recycling may also be in Ashland’s future, Wheeler said.

“I certainly won’t rule that out,” he said, “but that would be down the road.”

Until the city’s drop boxes are up, residents have several other recycling options.

They can haul materials to Rumpke Consolidated Companies, Inc., whose expanded facility opened in Hanging Rock last year or to the Ashland Recycling Center on Greenup Avenue.

Rumpke currently accepts all residential materials with the exception of glass at its Hanging Rock facility. Rumpke’s director of recycling, Steve Sargent, said the company plans to begin accepting glass in August.

The Ashland Recycling Center, owned by Mansbach Metal Co., accepts scrap metals and aluminum beverage cans and has partnered with Rumpke to provide a drop box for newspapers.

A representative of Mansbach would not return calls requesting comment on its recycling center.

Sargent said the company will be bidding on contracting with the city for its recyclable materials.

“We’re anxious to provide the City of Ashland an aggressive proposal to increase recycling in the greater Ashland area,” he said. Sargent called Ashland’s plans “a great first step.”

Rumpke is currently contracting with Lawrence and Scioto counties in Ohio for its recyclable materials, which are collected in drop boxes and by curbside pickup.

Sargent said the facility is targeting the second week of August to launch its recycling buy back center. All residential recyclable material will be purchased from the public with the exception of glass, which will be taken on a donation basis only. The company will also begin to buy back scrap metal.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reach at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.