As landfills fill up and counties look for solid waste options recycling may be on the minds of residents but it is currently not an option in much of Southwest Virginia.
Bland County resident Carol Wyllie broached the subject with county supervisors last month. She said she has been in her home for 30 years and continues to pile up recyclable materials in hopes of finding somewhere to take them.
Administrator Eric Workman said the supervisors have always supported recycling but when the market for recyclables collapsed some years ago the county has nowhere to take the materials that once were recycled.
“Everyone is trying to figure out how to do recycling,” Workman said. “Bland no longer collects recyclables because there is no market for it.”
There are a lot of challenges to recycling, Workman said, and all of Southwest Virginia is trying to figure it out.
In Wythe County, certain recyclables are accepted at convenience centers: cardboard, newspapers, slick advertising, phone books, some plastic, and some metal cans.
Smyth County convenience stations are no longer accepting glass, plastic or newspapers for recycling because there is not a place readily available to recycle the items. Smyth County residents should include these items with their other household trash. Recycling of electronics resumed this year with restrictions. Cardboard has also been accepted.
There is a non-profit group in Virginia working to establish recycling of plastic bottles. Called The Virginia Bottle Bill Organization the group was started by three dog walkers who said they were fed up with litter they found on their daily walks.
“Our concern for the environment, frustration over Virginia’s lousy recycling rates, and the production of ever-increasing mountains of single-use plastic and trash, made us band together to fight for change,” the group states on its website, vabottlebill.org. “Many concerned individuals, environmental groups, and manufacturers are fighting to reduce the use of plastic, and they all support the idea of a bottle bill.”
Another speaker at the supervisors’ meeting was Shirley Saunders of Rocky Gap seeking the county’s help in improving internet in the community.
Saunders said there is especially a problem for the elderly not knowing how to, or be able to, access the internet. She suggested conducting classes for those having trouble.
Food insecurity is another problem for many in the Rocky Gap community, Saunders said.
No comments were received during public hearings on a conditional use permit for Titus Trucking to operate in the Bastian Industrial Park and amendment of the zoning ordinance to add recreational facilities with a conditional use permit to the uses permitted in the commercial district. Both requests were approved.
Cameron Burton, director of library and tourism, updated the board on planned Christmas activities including a parade on the first Saturday in December.