KINGWOOD — Preston County is one step closer to glass recycling.
Members of the Preston County Solid Waste Board voted Wednesday to submit an application for a West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection recycling grant for the GP-05L system.
Don Smith, who represents the Preston County Commission on the board, said the GP-05L system costs $104,210. He said this includes shipping, installation and five days of safety training.
“It processes two tons of glass an hour,” Smith said. “If it operates 48 weeks a year, over 10 years you process 38,600-plus tons of glass. That equates to less than $3 a ton.”
The system separates glass products from non-glass debris. Smith said this would eliminate the need to separate glass by color.
People dropping glass off at the recycling center will not have to remove the wrappers or clean the glass before it is recycled.
Smith said the machine will take care of that. He said Terra Alta will own the final product from the recycled glass and the SWA will help market it.
Smith said the recycled glass can be bagged and sold, it can be used in landscaping and because the glass mulch shines at night, it can be used in sidewalk and driveway construction.
He said the glass can also be made into glass sand or glass mulch, which could be sold for use in parks.
Smith said because glass is heavy, recycling it could cut the cost of taking trash to the landfill. He said initially the recycling center should have customers drop the glass off at the site. He said contacting restaurants and bars should keep glass waste down.
“The ultimate goal is to make enough to purchase a larger machine,” Smith said.
Because the machine is 35 feet long and about 14 feet wide, Terra Alta Mayor Bobby DeLauder said an addition will have to be built to the town’s recycling building to house it.
In other business, the board voted to sign off on a WVDEP recycling grant application for the City of Kingwood. Kingwood Councilman Mike Lipscomb said the $85,000 grant is being submitted to cover the cost of a propane powered fork lift, bailing wire, tires for a vehicle, a garage door, an electric tarp system, to have the recycling center painted and other miscellaneous items.
Lipscomb said Kingwood can only apply for the grant every other year and “We’ve received it every time we’ve applied.”
Board members voted to accept the bid of Infinite Electronic Recycling from Wintersville, Ohio, for $6,875 to conduct this year’s ecycling. PC Renewal of Morgantown bid $14,500. PC Renewal has done the ecycling program for the county since 2005.
County Litter Control Officer Jay Sowers said recently a county resident brought in more than 100 old tires to the tire recycling center.
Sowers said while doing clean up over the Memorial Day weekend, he found three and a half grams of meth and a pipe. He contacted the sheriff’s office and a deputy picked them up.
“Discarded needles are really bad along the roads,” he said. “When I saw kids playing (in yards close to roads) I stopped and told parents to watch out for needles.”
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