Haywood County has offered a helping hand as towns grapple with how to cover the extra cost of hauling resident’s trash to the White Oak Landfill.

Starting in July, towns will have to drive trash out to the White Oak landfill near the Tennessee border. Currently, the towns transport their garbage to a transfer station in Clyde, a convenient mid-way point, and the county takes it the rest of the way to landfill. But, the county has decided to shut down the station to save money.

Rather than leaving towns in the lurch, the county will share some of the savings it realizes with the towns to help offset a portion of the extra cost they would otherwise incur.

“We want to try to minimize any negative impact,” said Mark Swanger, chair of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners. “We knew that it would likely create additional costs.”

The money will come out off the $800,000 to $900,000 in savings the county will realize after it closes the transfer station.

“There will be sufficient savings to help the municipalities,” Swanger said. “I think they are very amenable to it.”

It is unknown how much the county will chip in.

“Any amount that would reduce our costs would help,” said Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway.

The extra driving distance to the landfill will mean more gas and more hours for town trash trucks. Towns could also be forced to buy additional trucks and hire more garbage men as a result.

Realizing the additional burden it would place on towns, the county held off on closing the transfer station until summer to align with the new budget year. The county has been working through the issue with towns for more than a year.

“The cooperation between the county and towns is really important,” said David Francis, chair of the county’s solid waste committee. “We knew that it was going to be a change in the way they operate.”

The county wanted to avoid changing “all the sudden” and give towns a chance to figure how they will handle the change, he said.

The county realizes that town residents are also county residents, Francis said, and wanted to ease the burden on towns and hopefully avoid a situation where the towns would need to pass the added cost onto their residents.

The county’s scales at the transfer station have helped show towns that their garbage trucks were often not filled to capacity when dropping trash, Francis said. If the trucks carried heavier loads, they could take fewer trips to the landfill and possibly avoid the cost of new truck.

The towns are currently tabulating how much each option would cost them and must present their estimates to the county by Jan. 15. The county will decide how much it will give to the towns in May as it constructs its budget.

No more schlepping those empty drink bottles or cans home after a day of browsing in downtown Waynesville.

A dozen recycling containers will soon be scattered around Main Street and its surrounds.

The town made the move purchase and install recycling cans based on requests from merchants as well as residents, according to Alison Lee Melnikova, the assistant town manager.

Melnikova scouted the streets and sidewalks with Downtown Waynesville Association Director Buffy Messer recently to assess where to put the new containers, but the final locations are still being decided.

The recycling containers will look similar to the public trash cans around downtown, with the vertical wood slats, but will be dark green in color and are actually made from recycled plastic, although they look like wood, Melnikova said. The recycling containers will cost the town $5,000.

For special events and festivals, DWA put out portable recycling cans, but the rest of the year, Main Street browsers faced the unfortunate conundrum of what to do with those recyclables — either toting a sticky can around or guiltily tossing it when it seems no one is looking.

Cans should be in place by early August.

This June, 91,000 pounds of paper will make its way into Western North Carolina. Some of it will end up in kitchen drawers, some will be used as doorstops, some will end up as litter dotting the roads, while still more will eventually find a home in the landfill.

It’s this year’s shipment of Yellowbooks, an annual tradition that could one day be an anachronism in an increasingly digital world.

But Neg Norton doesn’t think that day will be soon. He’s the president of the Local Search Association, also known by various other names including the Yellow Pages Association.

“It still plays a big role,” said Norton of the good old printed phone book. “About 75 percent of adults used print yellow pages some 11 billion times last year. We have some 3 million small-business advertisers across the country. Clearly they do so because they’re getting a good return on investment.”

But some think that rather than being a relevant tool, the phone book is an annoying relic. On the West Coast, San Francisco lawmakers are looking to ban the book from city limits unless a customer requests it. A similar measure in Seattle was met with a lawsuit last year by Norton’s group, who lobby actively on behalf of the $13 billion industry.

In Waynesville, such severe measures aren’t on the table, but Town Manager Lee Galloway said he does hear complaints about the tomes.

“Especially at some houses that were vacant and it jut became litter,” said Galloway.

And that is a problem with phone books. While Local Search said it’s involved in recycling old and unused books, they don’t necessarily take responsibility for returning to collect phone books that haven’t been touched since delivery.

And then there’s just the sheer volume. Twenty-five years ago, there was usually only one phone book to be found on the market. Now there are dozens in every region across the country.

The two main competitors in WNC are Yellowbook and AT&T’s The Real Yellow Pages, but nationally Norton said there are 200 separate companies hawking books.

That’s thanks to a 1991 Supreme Court decision that declared phone books outside the realm of copyright, as they held only a miniscule amount of original content.

But with the Internet so ubiquitous that Google has become a verb, even Norton conceded that when a younger generation of digital natives reaches adulthood, the printed books might become museum fodder. And, he said, his group is OK with that. They don’t want to pass out unwanted books — it’s as bad for them as it is annoying to the consumer.

“It does us absolutely no good to deliver a phone book to somebody who doesn’t want one. We don’t make any money by distributing additional copies,” said Norton. That’s why they’ve created an opt-out website, yellowpageoptout.com, that allows consumers to pass on the phone book. According to Norton, they’ve gotten around 400,000 opt-outs nationwide with the site, which doesn’t include those who call the book publishers directly to cancel.

But even if they are self-regulating, the industry has historically railed against legally mandated opt-in or opt-out programs.

In 2008, a bill was introduced in the state Senate, co-sponsored by local senator John Snow, that would force phone book companies to provide customers the option to decline. It died after the first reading, thanks in part to lobbying by the Yellow Pages Association.

“We think it’s wrong of the government to select winners and losers in the print media market,” said Norton. “We think that’s a very dangerous precedent for the government to set.”

Plus, he pointed out, with programs such as the one proposed in San Francisco, if 75 percent of people use the book at some point in the year, it’s impractical to ask them all to opt in.

Though do-not-deliver programs aren’t mandatory in North Carolina, Yellowbook Market Manager Michael Hartnett said he does field a call every now and again.

“Yes, it happens. But it’s a rare occurrence,” said Hartnett. He said the 91,000 Yellowbooks they’ll be distributing this year in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties have held pretty steady for the last few years. But nationally, the trend is going down.

This year, there are 8 percent fewer phone books hitting the streets than the year before. And many are smaller, thanks to the elimination of the residential white pages in many larger markets.

In this way, say industry advocates, phone book companies are doing their part to reduce their own waste stream. They’re making books smaller, and all books are completely recyclable. In fact, that’s what they’re made of — themselves. When old books are recycled, they’re combined with disused woodchips gleaned from the lumber-making process and pressed into new books, a cycle that repeats itself each year.

So even as the digital revolution marches on, that staple of the kitchen drawer still, for now, has a life and a place.

“We still have a lot of people using the phone books,” said Galloway, and for those that do, they’ll be pleased to know a new shipment is already headed their way.



Facts
• 1: percent all paper products accounted for by phone books
• 0.3: percent of municipal waste stream generated by phone books
• 731,000: tons of phone books distributed in 2010
• The first phone book was created in 1878 for New Haven, Conn., residents. 
• Interleafing two phone books will make them impossible to pull apart. 
• To opt out of phone book delivery, visit yellowpagesoptout.com. 

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources released a study this week showing strong growth in recycling jobs in the state despite the effects of the recent recession.  

The research, conducted by DENR’s Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach, is the latest in a string of studies demonstrating the ongoing contribution of recycling to the state’s economic growth. Results published in 1994, 2000, 2004, 2008 and now in 2010 have each documented increases in recycling employment in North Carolina over time.

The study’s major findings include:

There are currently almost 15,200 private sector recycling-related jobs in North Carolina.

Private sector recycling jobs have increased 4.8 percent since 2008.

The total annual payroll for North Carolina recycling businesses is $395 million.

Forty-eight percent of recycling businesses surveyed anticipate creating more jobs during the next two years.

Twenty-five percent of businesses surveyed report manufacturing a product using recycled materials.

Recycling businesses target a wide variety of recyclables for collection, processing or use in manufacturing. No single recycling commodity dominates the market.

“We are pleased to see that recycling remains a dynamic source of green jobs in North Carolina,” said DENR Secretary Dee Freeman. “The study shows that recycling not only helps us reduce our dependence on landfills, save energy and prevent pollution, but that it also boosts the economy at a critical time.”

“North Carolinians have a real opportunity to contribute to our economic recovery by recycling at home, at work and on-the-go,” said Scott Mouw, director of the state’s recycling programs.  “By diverting recyclable materials out of the waste stream and back into the stream of commerce, we can grow the more than 900 recycling businesses across the state who are making key investments in the collection, processing and end-use of those commodities.”

North Carolina-based recycling businesses listed in the state’s online Recycling Markets Directory received an invitation to participate in the 2010 Recycling Business employment study update. Additional recycling employment data from the N.C. Employment Security Commission and Harris Infosource was included in the study for recycling-related businesses not listed in the Recycling Markets Directory.  

A copy of the study can be found online at www.p2pays.org/ref/53/52107.pdf

When the hour finally arrived for Haywood County commissioners to vote on a budget for the upcoming year, Haywood County Chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick expressed his wish for a unanimous vote. That’s exactly what he got.

But that 5-0 victory for the budget came in spite of Commissioner Skeeter Curtis stating outright that he would vote against the budget just a minute prior.

Curtis’s dissent stemmed from a controversial plan to overhaul the county’s trash and recycling operations in order to save money.

Both Curtis and Kirkpatrick opposed one aspect of that plan — a move to privatize the county’s 10 convenience centers, where county residents without curbside trash pick-up dump household waste and recyclables.

However, all five commissioners agreed on another part of the overhaul: shutting down the line of workers who manually sort recycling before it is sold. Instead, the county will sell recyclables in bulk without putting them through a pick line.

Other than the contentious trash overhaul, Haywood County’s budget — which does not include a tax hike — sailed by this year.

Not a single person spoke for or against the budget at the official public hearing, even though more than 40 people attended. Speakers saved all their remarks for a separate public comment period on the trash overhaul.

“I’d hate to be having a split vote on the budget, based on the (trash issue),” said Kirkpatrick. “I really want to see the budget passed with five votes.”

Commissioner Kevin Ensley moved to approve the budget, with a second from Commissioner Mark Swanger. After an uncomfortable pause, Curtis said he would not vote to contract out jobs at convenience centers.

Kirkpatrick tried his final appeal, reminding Curtis that the solid waste changes are a relatively small part of a $65 million budget. Kirkpatrick added that the board had until August to amend the solid waste fee that have been proposed.

“You’re right,” said Curtis. “It’s a good budget. Everyone worked hard on it.”

Split vote on convenience centers

While all five commissioners voted to pass the budget, Curtis and Kirkpatrick got a chance later in the meeting to formally oppose privatizing jobs at the convenience centers. Commissioners voted three to two to contract those jobs at the county’s ten convenience centers to Consolidated Waste Services, LLC.

Commissioner Bill Upton, along with Swanger and Ensley, voted for the measure, touting the cost savings of $145,000 it would bring to the county. Closing the recycling pick line would bring an additional savings of $286,000.

But Kirkpatrick and Curtis voted against awarding the contract, with Curtis hoping to further study the issue with all stakeholders and Kirkpatrick hoping to postpone the layoffs. A few of the employees were close to retirement, and many had been supportive of the county’s wildly successful recycling efforts.

“I would hope there’s a way to take care of these folks,” said Kirkpatrick.

The contract that was approved does say that CWS should make a “reasonable effort” to hire the current county employees who currently man the convenience centers.

Swanger added that phasing out the soon to be retired employees in a fair manner would likely take a long time.

“The more I think about it, I’m on both sides,” added Upton. “And I know you can’t be on both sides.”

Both Swanger and Upton had served in a solid waste task force that carefully researched the issue. The county appointed a solid waste task force to come up with cost savings in light of the $4.5 million landfill expansion that taxpayers must now pay off.

Due to the landfill expansion, residents will see a $22 increase in the $70 household solid waste fee — but that’s compared to a $40 dollar increase residents would see if not for the cost-saving measures.

Curtis and Kirkpatrick had wanted to hike up the household solid waste fee by $40, which — along with supporting the landfill — would also include $4.50 per household to save the convenience center employees’ jobs, while $13.50 would be dedicated to saving up for eventually closing the White Oak landfill decades from now.

The bill for complying with regulations with the closure of White Oak would come out to a whopping $16.6 million in “2009 dollars.”

“We need to start putting money aside for closure,” said Curtis. “We’re talking about big dollars for future generations out there.”

Kirkpatrick said $110 really isn’t a lot of money, coming out to $10 a month to get rid of all household trash and recycling.

A third part of the trash overhaul, which would be a year away, is to close the transfer station, where town trash trucks and private haulers unload trash. From there, the county hauls it the rest of the way to the White Oak landfill.

At the meeting, commissioners agreed to solicit bids for privatizing the landfill, transfer station and convenience centers — solely for educational purposes.

There was one thing Haywood County commissioners, town officials, private haulers and county employees could all agree upon at last week’s public hearing on the budget: Someone, somewhere has to pay for the skyrocketing costs of trash operations in the county.

The argument, of course, centers around who should be left footing the bill.

Officials are still waiting to see if commissioners will shut down the transfer station in Clyde, where private and town haulers drop off trash that is then delivered by the county to the remote White Oak landfill. Closing the transfer station would save the county $940,000.

Commissioner Mark Swanger said the savings from closing the transfer station are too great to be ignored. Closing the station would prevent trash from being handled twice and would drastically cut down on equipment costs.

“These costs are so great and the potential savings are so great that they must be seriously considered,” said Swanger.

But the shutdown would also mean greater expenses for towns and private haulers who would have to drive much farther to the White Oak landfill. Those higher costs would be passed on to town residents in Canton, Clyde and Waynesville, along with county residents who arrange for private pick-up of trash. Maggie Valley, located close to the landfill, would see no change in their costs.

If the station is closed, Waynesville residents would see their household fee shoot up by $18, while commercial customers in town would see a 35 percent increase. Meanwhile, residents in Clyde would shell out 66 percent more annually.

“All of the savings that the county supposedly is making has got to be made up somewhere,” said Paul White, a private hauler.

At last week’s hearing, town officials joined in on the outcry against closing the station.

“This is not a Town of Waynesville problem. This is not a Town of Clyde Problem,” said Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway. “This is a problem for the whole county ... It needs to be fair.”

Galloway said all county residents should share the burden of higher expenses in the solid waste department.

Residents without town pick-up drop their trash at one of 10 convenience centers stationed around the county. The county then foots the bill to haul it the rest of the way to White Oak.

Town residents, however, would be expected to ship their trash all the way to White Oak on their own dime, while the county would continue to fully cover the final leg of the trash journey for residents using convenience centers.

On the other hand, having a transfer station requires significant investment in expensive equipment to compact trash before it heads to the landfill. No such equipment is used at convenience centers.

Galloway said hypothetically, town haulers could begin dumping their trash at a nearby convenience center, or the town could even do away with trash pick-up altogether, sending residents directly to convenience centers instead. Either move would create an even bigger headache for county leaders.

Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick asked Galloway if he’d be in favor of a fee for towns to keep the transfer station open instead. Galloway countered by asking if the county would also charge those who use the convenience centers an extra fee.

“It’s the same difference,” Galloway said.

At the very least, Galloway said he hopes the county will give towns enough time to prepare for the changes. Earlier, the county said it might close the transfer station this fall. Now, the county estimates it will take at least until summer 2011 to prepare for the shutdown.

Commissioner Bill Upton said he’s thought about the issue as much as any issue he’s ever thought about, yet he was still struggling to find a solution.

“We’re in a no-win situation,” said Upton, adding that it was obvious the speakers wanted to keep everything the same. “I’ve heard that over and over again, but that’s still not helping the county solve our situation.”

Haywood County commissioners are fighting opposition on all fronts after a county task force recently recommended major changes to trash and recycling operations.

The central debate is revolving around a proposal that would privatize a portion of the county’s trash operations, put 15 full-time county employees out of work, and shut down a transfer station in Clyde where haulers now deliver their loads.

“The same folks that say reduce the costs are here saying save the jobs,” said Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick at a county meeting Monday, which saw everyone from private trash haulers to county employees to regular citizens railing against commissioners.

Meanwhile, town officials in Waynesville, Clyde and Canton are none too happy about greater expenses being passed down to them as the county offloads some of its current responsibilities.

Haywood County’s budget as proposed calls for the county to outsource operations of its 10 convenience centers, where residents without curbside trash pickup dump their household garbage and recyclables.

The county also plans to lay off employees who now sort all the county’s recyclables manually. Alternatively, recyclables would be hauled away to be separated much more quickly by machine.

If both measures are passed, the county would save $431,000. However, the household solid waste fee would still increase by $22 to make debt payments on an expansion of the White Oak landfill. Without the cost saving measures, those fees would jump up by $40 per household this year. The fee is currently $70.

Most controversial of all, though, is the suggestion not yet incorporated into this year’s budget: closing the county’s transfer station in Clyde.

For now, the transfer station offers town trash trucks and private haulers a one-stop shop. It’s where they drop off recyclables and where they offload trash, which the county then delivers the rest of the way to the White Oak landfill.

If the proposed changes are passed, all haulers would be forced to make the long trek out to the landfill, located off exit 15 on Interstate 40.

Though shutting down the transfer station could save the county $940,000 annually, opponents say the costs would still be passed down to customers in one form or another.

“It’s more expensive on the private haulers, it’s more expensive on the towns,” said Paul White, a hauler from Maggie Valley, who also criticized the county for excluding the towns and private sector from its solid waste committee, which came up with the recommendations.

“It’s going to affect everybody in this room, not just me,” said Roger Henson, a private hauler who handles trash pick-up for the Town of Clyde. “Reconsider this, because I’m telling you, it’s going to hurt.”

Dan Best, an employee on the recycling pick line facing a layoff in less than two months, argued the commissioners are sending money away from Haywood.

“Keep it in-house, keep it in Haywood County, and make Haywood County a viable place,” said Best.

The towns

speak up

Joy Garland, town administrator for Clyde, was caught completely off-guard by the county’s proposal.

“We just learned about this. It kind of comes as a little late in the budget year,” said Garland. “We’re just trying to put our numbers together at this point ... My board is not in favor of it, I can tell you that.”

Henson said if the transfer station in Clyde closes, his costs would skyrocket by 66 percent from having to make the long haul out to White Oak multiple times a day. The increase would be passed on to his main client, the Town of Clyde.

“We knew it would impact us, but had no idea 66 percent,” said Garland, who anticipates town residents seeing their household fees shoot up from $9 to about $15 per month.

Over in Canton, closing the transfer station would cost the town about $115,000 a year in new equipment. That translates to monthly fees jumping from $8 up to $13 per household.

Al Matthews, Canton’s town manager, said the town would seriously consider privatizing its own operations.

“We could probably contract for service cheaper than we could pass that cost on to our customers,” said Matthews.

Waynesville residents might see their household rate rise from $5.50 per month to $8 a month if the county shuts down its transfer station.

Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway said the town would need to acquire two new rear-loading garbage trucks and hire a new employee to shuttle trucks between curbside collection crews and the larger trucks bound for the White Oak landfill.

There also would be more wear and tear on the trucks, requiring more diesel fuel and more service, as well as an additional set of tires annually, Galloway said.

Driving to White Oak instead of the transfer station in Clyde would also add an extra 27,000 miles annually to each truck in Waynesville. The total cost increase annually for the Town of Waynesville would come out to $199,000.

Galloway said he couldn’t speak for his town board, but that he would prefer to see the county fee set higher to keep the transfer station open.

The Town of Maggie Valley, which is much closer to White Oak than its neighbors, is unfazed by the county’s proposal. Adding four miles to their private contractor’s journey each way will not result in a price hike.

“They might have to leave town a little bit earlier than if they were taking it to the transfer station,” said Tim Barth, Maggie’s town manager. “That would be the only difference.”

Maggie Valley residents can expect their household fees to remain steady at $8.24 per month.

Barth said the town decided to get out of the trash business in 2003 after growing tired of maintaining and replacing expensive equipment — not unlike the county’s current quandary.

At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Skeeter Curtis reiterated that the proposal is far from a done deal, while Commissioner Mark Swanger said shutting down the transfer station would streamline the process and prevent trash from unnecessarily being handled twice.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Kevin Ensley expressed confidence that the private sector would somehow pull through.

“I believe the entrepreneurs that haul the trash now will find a way to make money,” said Ensley. “I really do.”

However, Best said if the county invested adequately in the department, solid waste director Steven King could run it more successfully.

“If he had the backing of the commissioners, they can make this place go,” said Best.

Faced with a tall and growing stack of bills in the solid waste department, Haywood County commissioners are seriously considering offloading part of county trash and recycling operations to private companies.

Whether it’s the $4.5 million spent to expand the White Oak landfill, expensive equipment sorely in need of repair or replacement, environmental fines incurred by the now defunct Francis Farm landfill, or a relentless rise in recycling without staffing to sort it — county commissioners have just about had enough.

The equivalent of 15 full-time employees would be out of a job as early as July 1, the start of the next fiscal year, if the outsourcing plan is enacted. Commissioners have yet to vote formally on the drastic change in county operations, but Commissioner Kevin Ensley says the board seems to be in agreement thus far.

“We’re pretty much going to be doing this,” Ensley said.

A solid waste task force has examined every facet of the issue and recommended the following:

• Privatize the county’s 10 convenience centers, where residents without trash pickup dump household garbage and recyclables, a move that would save the county $145,192.

• Eliminate the pick line at the recycling center where employees sort recyclables. Instead, haul recyclables — other than cardboard, paper and metal, which can be more profitable to sell — to another county to be sorted by machine. Citizens will be encouraged to sort their own recycling. Projected cost savings: $286,166.

• Eventually close the transfer station in Clyde some time this fall. Towns with trash pickup and private haulers would have to take loads directly to the White Oak landfill. Residents can still drop bulky items, metal, cardboard and paper in Clyde, however. Projected cost savings: $940,000 annually.

The first two recommendations may take place as early as July 1, though the transfer station shutdown will have to wait until the landfill is prepared for increased traffic. It would need a redesign to keep the public separated from heavy dump trucks and improvements to the dirt roads, which are passable only by four-wheel drive in the rain.

Even if the first two recommendations are implemented, the solid waste fee would still shoot up from $70 to $92 per household this year. County leaders say that the fee would jump even further to $110 if they don’t contract services out to private companies.

“We can’t ask our people to pay much more,” Commissioner Bill Upton said.

“Now would be the best time for us to go down this path,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger, who anticipates soliciting proposals and bids from contractors in the very near future.

Haywood leaders have already been in discussions with one Tennessee company and two North Carolina companies so far.

Furthermore, county leaders are exploring the option of private management of the landfill and have not completely ruled out selling the property.

“If they brought up the idea, we would listen,” said Stephen King, solid waste director for Haywood.

A devastating week

Last week, King had the difficult task of calling his employees at the recycling center together to announce that they would likely lose their jobs in less than two months.

King ran down to most of the county’s 10 convenience centers to personally deliver the bad news to workers there.

“It’s a very difficult predicament to be in,” said King. “I felt personally if I didn’t let them know, I would be doing them a disservice.”

Regardless, workers at the pick line are still deeply disappointed in county leaders.

“A lot of them have worked for some time,” said Dan Best, a pick line worker. “It’s just devastating for the people.”

With an unemployment rate at about 12 percent in Haywood County, Best said commissioners are sending much-needed Haywood jobs out of the county.

Larry Boone, an employee at Hazelwood convenience center, said he felt “uneasy” about the potential of losing both his job and benefits. Some of the savings from a private company taking over would likely be a result of lower wages and fewer benefits.

Though convenience center employees like Boone have a real chance of being rehired by the private companies that take over, it’s another story for the pick line workers at the recycling center.

“I have a lot of compassion for the employees,” said King, who said the gathering at the recycling center brought tears to his eyes. “I’m right here working with them.”

Ensley said he, too, hates to see job loss but pointed out that the county’s recommended budget is 2.5 percent lower compared to last year’s budget, reducing the size of government and saving taxpayers of Haywood County more money.

“I’m not comfortable with us losing jobs, but I’m more not comfortable with raising the fees and taxes,” said Ensley. “I would rather keep those as low as we can.”

Benefits of privatizing

Commissioners have depicted privatization of trash and recycling operations as a direct path to efficiency.

The county’s current system is decidedly antiquated compared to what private companies devoted solely to solid waste accomplish every day.

King said it’s been difficult trying to fix equipment so old that he has to call all over the country to find parts.

“It’s a lot of cost involved to get yourself updated,” said King. “We’ve just scraped by for so many years in trying to utilize everything we can.”

Most private companies can compact garbage far more tightly, which could mean a doubling or even tripling of the landfill’s capacity, according to Swanger.

Shutting down the transfer station would save the county from ferrying loads of trash to the landfill. “The least amount of times we can touch something, the more money you save,” said Upton.

County residents, however, would not be forced to make the long trek out to White Oak — located at exit 15 off I-40 — and would still be able to dump bulky items, like couches, at the Clyde facility.

Town and county residents may have to begin sorting recyclables since the county will ship off certain recyclables but keep paper, cardboard and metal in-house.

For now, blue bags containing those products would still be hauled away to be sorted by machine, even if they contain paper, cardboard or metal.

King pointed out that using a machine would be vastly more efficient than having employees pick through mountains of blue bags manually.

“If we’re able to process two tons a day, they’re able to process eight tons an hour,” said King.

Disputing claims

According to Dan Best, a recycling pick line employee, the commissioners would not save taxpayer money in the long run.

“It’ll be just as expensive or more expensive,” said Best. “They’re using that for an excuse, and it don’t hold water...What they’re after is to get it out of their hair.”

It would cost more to haul away recyclables than sort them here, Best said, adding that contractors may initially offer attractive deals, but they would jack up prices once they’ve secured an agreement.

Swanger disagreed, arguing that the county would carefully construct contracts with private entities to protect the taxpayers from such price increases.

Paul White, a private hauler in Haywood County, agreed with Best, adding that the move would actually harm small businesses and private households in the end.

Hauling trash directly to the landfill rather than the transfer station would prove taxing for his vehicle, since access to the landfill can be especially difficult during bad weather, and construction debris like nails often damage tires there.

White said he’ll have to pass on the cost for upkeep to his customers, some of whom are already having trouble paying for the service with the poor economy.

“That pretty well puts me out of business,” said White.

Though the county planned to meet with private haulers to discuss privatization, White is skeptical about how much voice he and his fellow haulers will actually have.

“They already know what they’re going to do,” said White. “This is just a token meeting.”

Not a philosophical decision

County leaders openly support the idea of privatizing the landfill, but they stop short of touting privatization as the answer to all of government’s problems.

“This is not a philosophical discussion,” said Swanger.

King said it’s not a matter of government’s ability, but rather of adequate funding.

“I think government can do jobs as well and sometimes even better as long as it’s properly funded or maintained through the years,” said King. “If we’d started from day one funding the whole aspect in a different matter, I think we’d be in a little bit different shape.”

Privatization isn’t the best option for every county department in Swanger’s view.

“I think it’s function-specific. There are things that only government can do that cannot be logically privatized: law enforcement, emergency services, education,” Swanger said. “Many things government does and does well. There are other things that can have better results with a public-private partnership.”

Swanger said the proposed solution for solid waste would create such a partnership, with regular reviews, scrutiny and compliance ensured by county officials.

Haywood County Solid Waste Director Stephen King did not spend his interview with The Smoky Mountain News sitting at an office, pointing to encouraging recycling statistics.

Instead, King was constantly on the go, picking up a stray glove he spotted on the ground, ripping off plastic wrapping from a cardboard box headed to a recycling pile, and even sorting recyclables, taking the place of an employee as she chatted with the reporter.

King has personally learned to use all the equipment at the Materials Recovery Center in Clyde, where the county’s recyclables are hauled.

As many already know, King’s utter devotion to the cause does not wane after the workday is done. He’s known to spend his spare time picking up recyclables, just like he did with his dad as a young kid.

King says it’s difficult to see a mess without wanting to clean it up.

“It’s just a conscious effort, what I believe in, the way I think people should be,” said King. “I want to take something nobody else wants and make it a valuable commodity.”

Though King is modest about his role, it’s clear his wholehearted commitment to sustainability has given Haywood County an immense leg-up in increasing recycling.

“When the boss gets interested, that makes a big difference,” said Commissioner Bill Upton.

Haywood now ranks 11th in the state for total amount of material recycling, averaging 212.9 tons per capita, according to 2009 statistics from the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.

A mere two years before in 2007, Haywood County ranked 63rd out of 100 counties in the state. Since then, Haywood has practically doubled its per capita recovery of recyclables.

King said the citizens are the ones who deserve congratulations, not him.

“It’s not a one-man show, it’s a community effort,” said King.

Commissioner Mark Swanger said people are becoming more aware of the benefits of recycling and simply want to do the right thing.

“As generations grow up, it becomes a natural thing to do,” said Swanger. “It’s something they’ve always done.”

Government is certainly taking up the cause as well, with a state ban on plastic in the landfill passed in October 2009 and a landfill ban on discarded computer equipment set to take effect in April 2011.

Local county and town governments have worked to promote recycling to citizens through presentations, newsletters and educational materials online.

The Town of Waynesville is expecting to set its own record for recycling this year. From July to December 2009, the town picked up 157.2 tons of recyclables. If residents continue recycling at this rate, the town might break 300 tons at the end of the fiscal year in July 2010.

In comparison, Waynesville residents recycled a total of 173.6 tons for the entire 2004-2005 fiscal year.

Town Manager Lee Galloway said he’s personally observed an increase in recycling in his own household. Galloway and his wife recently put out their garbage before heading for a walk and realized they only had one bag of trash and two bags of recycling.

“Between what we put in the recycling and what we put in the compost, it really cuts down on what we put in the can at the street,” said Galloway.

Commissioner Kevin Ensley said he hadn’t educated himself on recycling until just last year. Until then, he didn’t realize citizens could recycle more than cardboard.

He went straight to Sam’s Club and bought himself two large trash cans to add to the one he already had for paper.

With seven people in his household, Ensley says he’s seen the number of trash bags he takes out decline from six a week to just two.

“It’s amazing, really,” said Ensley, who became convinced recycling was the way to go when he thought of all the space that recycling would save in the county landfill that taxpayers support.

“I’m not really an environmental-type person, I’m for keeping tax rates low,” said Ensley.

For those who are less than concerned with saving the environment, recycling advocates are likely to bring up two economic arguments to sway the debate.

Material that isn’t recycled heads to the landfill, which has finite space and which costs taxpayers to expand. A new cell at Haywood’s landfill cost almost $5 million and is projected to last five years. Recycling can add two years of life to that figure.

The second argument that’s routinely brought up by advocates is that recycling supports American jobs.

The county’s recycling center has five full-time employees devoted to sorting the steady stream of recycled materials that flows in. Then, there are the haulers who either bring recyclables to the facility or tow them away after they’ve been separated and compacted into enormous “bales.”

After them are those who work at plants that process recycled material, including many in North Carolina and nearby states like Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

“Recycling supports jobs in every one of these states,” said King.

Despite Haywood’s incredible success story with recycling, the picture’s not all rosy, as is evident as soon as one walks into the Materials Recovery Facility in Clyde.

The problem with success

A sea of blue plastic bags holding recyclables greets the eye and overwhelms the imagination at the MRF. It’s difficult to picture workers actually making progress, sorting through that mountainous heap.

In the face of a shocking surge in recycling, Haywood’s MRF has not gained, but actually lost employees in the past few years.

“We, in some respects, are a victim of our own success,” admits Swanger, who along with Upton serves on the county’s solid waste task force.

Robin Ledford, pick line operator and supervisor, can attest to that. She’s seen a jump from 4 to 6 tons a week of recyclables to 20 to 26 tons a week since she started working at the pick line three years ago.

The pick line is situated in an enclosed area above the heap of blue bags and mammoth bales of already sorted recyclables. It is reminiscent of the factories of yesteryear, where workers planted themselves in front of a conveyor belt all day, engaging in highly repetitive work.

An unsorted mess enters the room on the conveyor belt, as employees situated on either side of it work furiously to toss materials into one of four bins either beside them or across from them.

The quickest and most experienced employees take care of the front of the line, and the unsorted mess gradually becomes manageable as it moves forward.

A magnet sits at the end of the line to pick up some of the recyclables as well. It cost the county $23,000, but saved the county $18,000 in just the first year, according to King.

While the county says its studying needs at the MRF, Ledford and her co-workers are not shy about expressing their own opinions.

“We need help, but the county doesn’t seem to think we do,” said Ledford. “It’s stressful. It gets to you sometimes ... Everybody there gets depressed because it keeps piling up.”

Sometimes, workers are pulled from other departments within solid waste to help keep up with the never-ending tide of recyclables.

Sheriff Bobby Suttles has devoted as many as eight inmates to help out, but recently inmates haven’t been coming to the MRF.

Ledford demands that all commissioners — along with citizens — immediately take a tour of the facility. “They really don’t see what we do,” said Ledford.

However, Swanger said the solid waste task force is actively pursuing solutions to the problem. It’s just too early to say what action the county will take.

“I think it will be a while because it’s complicated,” said Swanger. “There’s much research to be done.”

Several presentations on solid waste have been made to the county board over the last few years, but the lion’s share of discussion is still taking place within the study committee.

For now, possibilities include privatizing various aspects of solid waste, including hauling recyclables from the MRF. Swanger assures employees these discussions are entirely premature. “We don’t want to scare employees, [but] we have an obligation, I think, to explore all possibilities.”

The option of hiring more employees to deal with the surge in recycling is not off the table, Swanger added.

Upton said there’s not only a need for additional staff, but also for a director of recycling.

In Ensley’s view, it would take a while before the county could add any staff to MRF.

“We’d have to have some growth in the economy to be able to add a position,” said Ensley. “We might be able to move some people laterally.”

While the need for a solution is obvious, some disagreement among commissioners exists over just how profitable recycling can be.

According to Swanger, recycling extends the life of the landfill, but it is generally not a profitable venture.

“In the long run, it does save money, but the actual selling of the commodities that are recyclable are not profitable,” said Swanger.

Ensley, however, said recycling could potentially be a moneymaker, and the more citizens recycle, the more recyclables the county can sell.

King also defended recycling’s potential for generating revenues. According to him, the recycling sector, like many others, is experiencing a down market, which has cut into revenues. The county could see more revenue if it invested money to improve operations and fix equipment that’s long sat unused at the recycling center.

A forklift has been sitting at the MRF for a year, waiting to be fixed, while a baler is approaching 20 years of service.

“Everywhere you turn, there’s equipment down like that,” said King. “You show me a piece of equipment in a business that’s 20 years old ... In a business, you gotta stay with the times.”

Paul White, a hauler from Maggie Valley, concurred with King, emphasizing that there’s only one baler in the recycling building that’s now operational.

“If it breaks down, they’re up the creek,” said White. “Stephen King is probably doing the best he can with what the county gives him to work with — but it ain’t enough.”

Unspeakable discoveries

Despite recycling’s many demonstrable benefits, there will always be a sliver of the population opposed to it, Swanger said.

Ledford has witnessed that opposition up close. She’s come across some “inhumane” items in her line of work, including dirty diapers, cat droppings, needles, and bagged dead animals, like a dead possum just last week.

Ledford doesn’t believe it’s an accident. “There’s no way you should get raw meat in your recyclables,” Ledford said.

Commissioners Swanger and Ensley were taken aback upon hearing about Ledford’s experience.

“Whether a person takes the time to recycle or not is one thing,” said Swanger. “But to protest against recycling is irresponsible.”

Ensley said he had not heard of such occurrences before. “That doesn’t really make any sense,” said Ensley. “You’d have to be really illiterate to do that.”

King, however, doesn’t want to pay attention to the slight minority that opposes recycling. For the rest of the world, it’s become almost fashionable to recycle or pursue sustainability.

King said he usually hates trends, but can’t deny the benefits of moving away from being a “throwaway society.”

“Most people are realizing we can’t have the same mentality of use, use, use, dispose, dispose, dispose,” King said. “They’re understanding we have to preserve some.”

Haywood Community College shot to the top in a nationwide recycling competition by doing little more than what it already does to promote sustainability.

More than 600 colleges signed up for RecycleMania across the country, recycling and composting more than 84 million pounds of material in just 10 weeks.

In HCC’s first year entering, it ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 19 in the country in its category of Waste Minimization, in which schools compete to see which produces the least amount of municipal solid waste (both recyclables and trash) per person.

By the end of the 10 weeks, HCC weighed in with about 19 pounds of trash per person. In comparison, Ursinus College, which ranked last in the category at No. 199, had a cumulative result of 200 pounds of trash per person.

In the first week, HCC sent more than 1,900 pounds of paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastic to the recycling center, as well as 3,500 pounds of scrap metal.

More than 500 pounds of wood were salvaged from the campus to be reused and over 100 pounds of food waste from the café were added to HCC’s compost pile.

Alan Morrow, HCC Campus Arboretum Team Leader, who led the effort, said the college did not have to start from scratch to succeed in the competition. It already had a compost pile, and students and staff have been trained to use recycling bins, located in every classroom and building.

“Participating in RecycleMania is just another way to highlight what HCC does every day to incorporate sustainability into campus life,” Morrow said.

For more information, visit www.haywood.edu or www.recyclemania.com. Contact Morrow at 828.627.4135.