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The Changing Face of Recycling in Banks County:
The problems with the nation’s economy have had an unexpected impact on the recycling community. The Southeast has been a leader in the recycling industry due to the fact that there are many carpet manufactures, paper plants and bottlers in the South.
With the slowdown in the economy that picture has changed. Due to the slowdown in the building and remodeling trades, carpet manufacturers are closing their doors either permanently or for 30 days. Newspapers are cutting their distribution and having a larger presence online. Manufacturers are not producing the quantity of products and shipping fewer raw materials in and finished products out resulting in less need for cardboard.
Many of the materials collected and not used in the United States were shipped to China and India. With the onset of a global economy all countries are facing the same slowdown as the United States with the result being that these countries also do not need our recyclables and so they have closed their borders to our recycled materials.
How does this affect recycling in Banks County? Banks County’s plastics were used to make carpets, the mixed paper was used to make new newspaper and other paper products and the old corrugated cardboard was used to make shipping boxes. Any materials not needed in our country were sent overseas.
With no markets for these products many of the recycling companies are losing money and in an effort to stay afloat they have to make adjustments in the materials they take, if they take them at all. All Georgian Counties are facing the same problem, little or no need for our materials. Banks County and other members of the Authority have the added burden of being located far from the markets making our materials even less interesting than materials that are closer in location. For the residents of Banks County this means that the way we recycle will have to change.
Beginning on January 5th the following changes will be in effect.
Mixed paper:
• We can only accept the following items in our paper bins and at the recycling center. Newsprint, office paper, mail and magazines. We can no longer take paperboard (cereal type boxes, beer wrappers) brown paper bags or any paper that does not have a white base. Paper recycled through Banks County will be used only to make newsprint and as the brown or colored paper creates problems in the newspaper making process we cannot market those types of papers
Plastics:
• We can no longer take plastics of any kind. We are being told that this is temporary, and we hope that is true, but until we can market our plastics we are unable to take them into our facility.
Banks County appreciates the commitment of the citizens who recycle and are working to locate new markets. According to industry leaders the picture changes not daily but hourly. The Authority hopes things will ease up in the next few months but until then these new rules are required to enable the county to move materials through the center. Please bear with us during this time of change and help keep the recycling center open by adhering to the new guidelines. If we can keep the center open by producing a product we can market, then when things ease up we hope to be able to go back to the old standards.
“We are going to focus our education efforts on reducing and reusing rather than recycling at this time.
Hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday 8:00am until 4:00pm and 7:00 am until 11:00pm on Saturdays. The recycling attendant is Ronald Munday. For more information please call KOMB at 706-677-2344
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