ECO Recycling Solid Waste Committee
August 1, 2010 / by natalmeads">natalmeads / Recycling / No Comments

ECO Recycling Solid Waste Committee

The Committee promotes the city, county and regional recycling including curbside pick-up, and advocacy towards improved Reduce, Reuse, and Recycling programs.  The committee educates the public and policymakers about best practices by speaking at Commission meetings, writing letters to the editor, holding public forums, contacting schools and businesses, and organizing eco-tours. The committee also coordinates with the county recycling of Christmas Trees into mulch in early January.

The committee meets on the Third Wednesday of each month at 4:30 pm in the ECO conference room — Join Us!

County Recycling Program

Click Henderson County Recycling for a link to the county’s Solid Waste website, where you can find the recycling brochure and the guidelines on solid waste disposal. The county has 100 recycling bins available for loan at special events.

The County Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection days are on the Third Thursdays, May through August.

Solid Waste and Recycling Progress

Advocating for recycling has been a continuous thread in ECO’s woven history of protecting natural resources. In 1989 ECO and the League of Women Voters talked the County into hiring its first Recycling Coordinator. In 1993, the Henderson County Landfill was capped and closed. A Transfer Station was set up to consolidate waste and ship it to Union County, SC. By 1994 County residents had 3 drop-off centres to take their recycling to. However, over the next few years, due to political push-back and poor recycling markets, 2 recycling centres were closed, and the recycling coordinator was deemed unnecessary. In 2005 conditions at the one remaining drop-off centre were so deplorable that ECO organized an Ad-hoc Committee for Recycling Reform, which brought together representatives from seven different local organizations, to force political change. The ECO Environmental Education Committee worked with the school system to establish recycling infrastructure at every school.

In 2006 ECO helped the County run an electronics-recycling event that was so successful it almost shut down Highway 176 because of the traffic bringing in recyclables. It took several years of dedicated advocacy for another Recycling Coordinator to be hired. In lieu of building and staffing additional drop-off centres, the Commissioners chose to make it mandatory for all private waste hauliers to offer to pick up recycling from their customers. So curbside pick-up became available to everyone. Now, although there is only one drop-off centre, it is centrally located, clean, and well managed. Not only does the centre take electronics for recycling every day, but it will also hold scheduled household hazardous waste collections.

Things really started to change in 2009. The city and county started coordinating the Recycling collection at the Apple Festival. In 2011, the county opened the new Convenience Center for collecting recyclable waste. In 2012, the American Recycling Company opened a Material Recover Facility (MRF) in Candler, NC. Henderson County now sends all of its collected recyclables to the MRF. Also, in 2012,  Hendersonville installed permanent recycling bins next to trash collection containers on Main Street.

State Law

ECO wants natural resources preserved.  The State of North Carolina is requiring that more and more waste items be banned from landfill disposal; Plastic bottles, oil filters, pallets, aluminium cans, used oil, tires, batteries, antifreeze, appliances, and electronics.

The county can be fined for not having a good recycling plan and/or programs in place.  Click for NC GS 130A-309.10  state law on recycling.

Henderson County’s New Convenience Center

The Recycling drop-off centre (opened in 2011) is located next to the Waste Transfer Station (and the closed landfill) on Stoney Mountain Road. As of 2013, the centre now also collects all plastic containers 1-7, gable-top drink containers, and electronics.

Here is a link to a news article about the new Convenience Center.

Electronics Recycling

The following items can be recycled at the Henderson County Convenience Center during normal business hours.

  • Computer monitors (intact)
  • Servers
  • Desktop Computers
  • Notebook Computers Printers
  • Scanners
  • Fax Machines
  • UPS systems
  • Networking equipment
  • Mice and Keyboards
  • Cables
  • Computer Speakers
  • Digital Cameras
  • PDAs
  • Automotive Batteries (lead-acid)
  • Non-Rechargeable Household Batteries (e.g., AA, AAA, C, etc.)
  • Rechargeable Batteries