By Evelyn Rupert
A low response could indicate that area business owners are uninterested in a proposal that would give them access to the county’s five recycling centers.
At the moment, a county ordinance says that only private citizens can use recycling centers. When the Board of Supervisors last month proposed opening up the centers to businesses, the offer was met with little enthusiasm, said Sondra Bateman, county recycling operations manager.
“Out of over 1,500 businesses in the county, it’s very discouraging that only 12 showed interest,” Bateman said.
Bateman said most businesses throw away recyclables. Others pay private companies to take care of their recycling, but most of those businesses recycle only cardboard, Bateman said.
“There probably is only a small group of businesses that choose to be adamant about recycling,” she said.
One such business is Cool Springs Organic Market just north of Lexington. In January, owner Brad Eisold went to a Board of Supervisors meeting to express his concerns about recycling.
According to the minutes from the meeting, Eisold said he has his own cardboard box container that C&S Disposal Inc., a garbage and recycling collection company in Natural Bridge, picks up. But bottles and containers from his business cannot be recycled at recycling centers.
Eisold’s comments inspired the board to consider a “pilot program” in which small businesses would be allowed to use recycling centers for a few months. That would give small businesses a place to recycle glass and plastic as well as cardboard. The program would be a test to see if the recycling centers could handle a higher volume.
The supervisors put Bateman in charge of finding businesses that would be interested in using the recycling centers. After advertising in local papers and on radio stations and passing out fliers at the centers, Bateman received only a handful of calls.
Bateman said she thinks most businesses owners do not want to spend extra time and effort on recycling. With the new recycling option, they would still be responsible for transporting their recyclables to the centers.
In addition, opening the centers to businesses would mean added pressure on the county.
“If we were to allow businesses to use recycling centers, yes, we’re going to save space in the landfill, but there will be other expenses,” Bateman said.
An increase in volume could require the hiring of more people to staff the recycling centers. Bateman expressed concern that the recycling centers are not large enough to handle all of the recyclables from local businesses.
Last month, the board agreed to wait a few months to decide on the proposal, giving Bateman more time to find interested businesses.
If no more than a dozen respond, Bateman said, she thinks the Board of Supervisors will dismiss the proposal. But the supervisors could return to the idea in the future.