Hampton County Residents Among State's Top Recyclers

 

 

Article and pictures courtesy of Michael M. DeWitt, Jr. - Staff Writer – Hampton County Guardian

John Stanley, Hampton County Solid Waste and Recycling Manager expects this site in Luray to be filled to capacity within the next seven to ten years.

 

 

You've mastered your ABC's, now John Stanley wants Hampton County residents to learn more about the Three R's: Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse.

“We have become a buy it, use it, and throw it away world-but instead to need to reduce what we throw away, recycle it, and complete the cycle by buying and reusing recycled products,” said Stanley, Hampton County's Solid Waste and Recycling Manager.

“Recycling is an alternative to polluting the environment and using up natural resources and I encourage everyone to get involved in recycling.”

Stanley recently announced that in 2006 Hampton County ranked among the top ten percent of all counties in recycling rates per capita. Last year alone Hampton County residents disposed of 17,101 tons of solid waste while recycling 6,657 tons for a recycling rate of 28 percent, which falls just below the state average of 30.4 percent.

“Hampton County is in the top ten percent of counties that recycle in the state and I'm proud of that,” said Stanley. “We try to do everything that the Department of Health and Environmental Control recommends. I'm really proud of Hampton County's recycling program and what we do.”

But more recycling is needed if we are to continue to reduce the amount of household solid waste that ends up in our state landfills, says Stanley. Hampton County residents disposed of 6.1 lbs of solid municipal waste per person per day in 2006 while recycling only 1.7 lbs. of that, leaving almost four and a half pounds of garbage per person per day being dumped in area landfills.

“The frame of mind for many is still the old green box days, but those days are gone,” said Stanley. “Hampton County has gone to recycling, and we're doing a pretty good job of it.”

Stanley heads up a solid waste and recycling program that includes a 260-acre landfill, ten recycling centers scattered throughout the county, and more than 30 employees.

At local recycling centers county residents can dispose of everything from household garbage and yard debris to electronic appliances and furniture.

But the fact remains that 80 percent of what we throw away each day can be recycled-and these recycling centers are set up to do just that. At each site residents can recycle office paper, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles and containers, milk jugs, appliances, electronics, clothing, scrap metal, tires, cooking oil, antifreeze, motor oil, oil bottles and filters, gasoline mixtures, paint, batteries, and steel cans.

“For a small county we can recycle just about everything,” said Stanley.

The recycling option is there, but the challenge lies in getting local folks to separate their solid waste and recycle properly, said Stanley.

“People have to want to recycle,” he added. “We can't make them do it, it has to be voluntary. It takes a little more time to separate everything and I know it's just easier to throw it all in one bag, but if you want to save landfill space and the environment you will recycle.”

Disposing of your household waste at an area recycling center is not the end of the line, it's just the beginning. County employees finish separating recyclable items-often by hand-, process them, and ship them to other processing facilities where items such as glass, plastic, metal, and rubber can be made into numerous other products in a process that not only saves manufacturers energy and money, but saves natural resources like trees, water, and coal.

Construction debris like concrete and cement blocks are also recycled and used to help pave or repair county roads.

Household garbage, that is bagged but typically contains many recyclable items, is compacted and transported to state landfills in Dorchester and Hickory Hill to be entombed in the ground, where it never fully decomposes.

The only types of waste buried in the Hampton County landfill are construction and demolition debris and ground-up yard debris and wood pallets, which will deteriorate over time.

Stanley's department also operates a Swap Shop located at the recycling center on Hopewell Road near Luray where residents can drop off unwanted-but usable- items like small electrical appliances, furniture, toys, hand tools, and reusable carpeting for others to come by and claim.

Advantages to recycling

There are many advantages to recycling, claims Stanley. In addition to saving money, energy, and natural resources like trees, increasing the amount of goods you recycle can decrease the amount of waste that is dumped and buried in landfills.

Landfills create methane gas and could leach toxins into the ground water if not properly constructed or maintained.

“We now know that household garbage in landfills doesn't deteriorate, and it's going to affect the environment sooner or later,” said Stanley. “We need to find a way to reduce this amount of waste, and the more we recycle the more we can keep out of the ground.”

Landfills are also expensive to build and maintain. To build a new landfill to meet current environmental health specifications would cost about a million dollars an acre, said Stanley.

And even after a landfill is closed and completely covered it must be monitored and tested for a maximum of 30 years, and even then the area will never be suitable for developments such as housing and must be used for parks or other above-ground recreation facilities.

Landfill space is also very limited, and state regulations require that landfills not be constructed too close together. The Hampton County landfill has been in operation for many years and Stanley estimated that it will be filled to legal capacity in seven to nine years, at which time the site may have to go vertical, which means that waste will be buried in mounds above ground.

“Soon we are going to run out of room for landfills,” added Stanley.

To help slow the filling of landfills like this one there are presently ten recycling centers located throughout Hampton County: on Walking Tall Road near Estill; on Sandy Run Road East near Varnville, on Two Sisters Ferry Road near Varnville, on Stone and Patrick Roads near Camp Branch, on Ben Hazel Road near Hampton, on Daley Road near Scotia, on Robertsville Road near Garnett, on Mount Olive Road in Early Branch, on Sandy Run Road West near Brunson, and on Hopewell Road near Luray.

These centers are open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. The Landfill Recycling Center is also open on Sunday from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m.

For more information on local and state recycling programs go online at www.hamptoncountysc.org and click on “Public Works.”

“Recycling is really a big thing, but people don't think about our environmental problems,” added Stanley. “And it's not us that will have the problem. Our children will have the problem.”

“Push recycling, push it. The more people we can get to recycle the better off we will be. It's a long-term investment in our future.”

 

              

    John Stanley, Hampton County Solid Waste and Recycling Manager, expects this county landfill site near
    Luray to be filled to capacity in the next decade.

Facts about recycling:

·        Hampton County’s recycling rate (28 percent) is among the top ten percent per capita in the state.

·        Hampton County residents disposed of 17,101 tons of trash in fiscal year 2006 while recycling only 6,657 ton

·        Hampton County residents generate about 6.1 lbs of trash per person per day:  4.4 lbs is disposed of and only 1.7 lbs is recycled.

·        Each one of us throws away more than 1,700 lbs of trash each year:  7 percent is glass, 7.6 percent is metal, 6.7 percent is food waste, 9.1 percent is plastic, 14.3 percent is yard waste, and 15.6 percent falls into other categories.

·        Sixty percent of this garbage ends up in landfills.

·        More than 80 percent of everything we throw away is recyclable in some way.

·        In South Carolina only 30.4 percent of all solid waste was recycled in 2006. We recycle only about 40 percent of metals generated.

·        Americans are using about 19.5 million barrels of oil per day, the most in our history, with 54 percent of this oil coming from foreign countries.

·        One pint of oil will create a one-acre slick on a body of water.

·        One gallon of oil will contaminate one million gallons of clean water – enough o supply 50 people drinking water for one year.

·        There is enough electric energy in two gallons of used motor oil to power the average household for one day.

·        About 9 million gallons of gasoline are spilled onto the ground each year from gassing up lawnmowers, boats, and automobiles. Gas contains many harmful pollutants called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC).

·        The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that more than 40 million people use ground water that is polluted by at least one VOC.