County responds to state recycling mandate

By Melanie Marshall

Don’t throw that bottle away.

Plastic bottles have joined aluminum cans on the list of items banned from North Carolina landfills. Used oil filters and wooden pallets were also banned effective Oct. 1. Aluminum cans were banned in 1994.

The ban encompasses bottles only, a container with a neck smaller than the base, including drink, detergent and shampoo bottles, and milk jugs.

Other plastics, such as children’s toys, take out containers and plastic bags, are not included in the ban.

However, the law is not aimed at enforcement on the individual level. There will be no garbage police strip-searching trash bags.

According to state officials all enforcement efforts will be directed at commercial operators who may try to bring large loads of blacklisted material to landfills.

“That’s not the spirit of the law,” state recycling director Scott Mouw said in an interview in the Raleigh News and Observer. “Clearly, this is more of a law of spirit or intent, everyone recognizing the positive reasons to recycle.”

County-level recycling officials are hoping the ban will cause residents to rethink tossing away recyclable plastics.

The Watauga County sanitation department accepts number one (PET) and number two (HDPE) plastics. The number refers to the resin identification. Plastics are marked on the bottom of the container. In addition to the bottles now banned from landfills, Watauga accepts items such as plastic containers from the grocery store for fruit or some frozen dinner trays. All colors, and one and two plastics may be mixed in together.

Lisa Doty, recycling coordinator for Watauga, said the bottles do not need to be washed and the lids may be left on. In prior years, residents were asked to remove labels, lids and wash containers. New technology in the recycling process no longer requires those steps, making recycling easier, according to Doty.

“While plastic bottles can be recycled easily, not all plastics can be recycled,” Doty said. “It’s important to remember than just because a plastic container has a recycling symbol, it does not mean it can be recycled in Watauga County.”

Number 5 plastics, such as yogurt containers or butter bowls, cannot be accepted through the Watauga convenience centers.

The wooden pallets were already being held out of the landfill in Watauga County prior to the ban. The county has a brush pile to collect the untreated wood materials, brush, and yard waste. The pile is chipped into mulch.

Used motor oil and filters are also collected separately at the Landfill Road site. The filters were banned due to oil left in the filter that seeps into groundwater from the landfill site. Motor oil was banned several years ago.
In 2008-09, Watauga recycled 143 tons of plastics, up from 112 the previous year. A total of 3,243 tons of metal, glass, paper, plastic and electronics were recycled.

The local landfill closed in 1994 due to contamination. Trash is now transported to Foothills Landfill near Hickory at a cost of $39 per ton. Approximately 145 tons per day are transported.

Prior to the bottle ban, Watauga was ranked 14th in the state in per capita plastic bottle recovery with 6.78 pounds per person for the 2007-08 fiscal year. Orange County was the leader with 29.42 pounds per person, more than double the second county, Pamilco, which recycled 14.76 pounds.

The plastics ban will be enforced by state officials at the landfills and transfer stations, such as the Watauga station on Landfill Road in Boone. There will not be local level enforcement.

Doty said the purpose of the ban was to meet the demands of the plastics manufacturers and processors in the state that rely on recycling. North Carolina is a leader in processing recycled plastics, but the supply isn’t enough. The bottle ban is intended to get more into the recycling stream, said Doty.

There are several N.C. companies that process plastics, currently employing 39,000 people statewide, according to the “Recycling Works” publication, a cooperative effort by the N.C. Department of Environment and National Resources and the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Envision Plastics, based in Reidsville, is the leading re-processor of number 2 plastics in the nation. The computer processes an average of five million pounds per month and will be soon advancing capacity to six million pounds per month.

Envision Plastics is adding food-grade technology, making it the first plant in the country with the capability of making a food-grade, post-consumer resin, according to “Recycling Works.”

For more information on recycling in Watauga County, locations and hours of the ten convenience centers, all of which accept recycling, call Doty at (828) 265-4852. New recycling bins are available at the Landfill Road center at no charge to Watauga residents with a limit of two bins per household.