KINGWOOD — The Preston County Solid Waste Authority will no longer accept plastic recyclables.
At the authority’s Wednesday meeting, Don Smith, who represents the Preston County Commission on the PCSWA board, said plastic pickup will continue until a notice can be posted in local newspapers.
“The bad news is the landfill is going to get fuller with no one taking bails of plastic,” County Litter Control Officer Jay Sowers said. “I’m going to have plastic galore along the roads now. It doesn’t look good.”
The decision does not affect the City of Kingwood’s plastic recycling program.
Kingwood Mayor Jean Guillot said the city will continue recycling plastic until Sunrise Sanitation notifies officials they will no longer take plastic.
Smith said even though the PCSWA will no longer take plastic, glass recycling is still on the table. The authority is working with Terra Alta to find a building to house a glass recycler.
Smith asked Terra Alta Mayor Robert DeLauder, who was present at the meeting, to see if it would be feasible to house a glass recycler in the town’s recycling building.
“We can look at different size machines,” Smith said. “They range in size from one ton to 10 tons an hour. If necessary, we can apply for a grant to build on to the building.”
Smith said he believes glass recycling could help fund the county’s recycling program.
The Dominion Post reported in November that Kingwood has to supplement payments received on garbage and recycling to support its program.
Recycled glass can be bagged and sold. Smith said it can be used instead of gravel in driveways and used in landscaping. Smith said because glass is heavy, recycling it could cut the cost of taking trash to the landfill.
“It costs the state more money when a bag is full of bottles,” Sowers said. He is researching how many bags of bottles it takes to make a ton.
In other business, PCSWA members voted to pay half the cost of materials to replace the roof on the Terra Alta recycling building. DeLauder said the total cost of the project will be $2,295. The recycling center will pay the remaining costs.
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