Establishing a recycling center in southern Vigo County could take several years.
Vigo County Commissioner Mike Morris, a member of the Waste District Commission, said county-owned property could be used for that purpose, so the Vigo County Solid Waste Management District announced its support for the Southern Recycling Center on Thursday. expressed.
Located near the northeast corner of Harlan Drive and Carlisle Street, the property has multiple buildings including a 5,000 square foot office building and a 15,000 square foot concrete building.
In April 2021, the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission signed a land donation agreement with Custom Blenders, a food waste and baking waste recycling company that produces animal feed, for 14 acres adjacent to the Vigo County Industrial Park. approved.
Under the contract, the Commission paid $7,878 in closing costs and approximately $24,000 in property taxes.
Larry Robbins County Engineer and Highway Commissioner said the former Custom Blender facility, which was built in 1983, needs improvement and will require approval from the Vigo County Council to fund repairs such as roofing and electrical work. .
Robbins said the southern recycling center could be located adjacent to the Highway Authority’s north office off Haythorne Avenue, similar to the existing recycling center.
Karrum Nasser, executive director of the Solid Waste Management District, said the second site would need “additional employees to have someone there all the time. I think we’ll look at e-waste in 2020. e-waste has decreased significantly.
“I don’t think it needs to be shredded,” Nasser added at the southern location. “I think we just started with single-stream recycling.”
Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, chairman of the district committee, said once the county highway department is ready for the southern highway facilities and has a timeline for occupancy, the solid waste district will “see how its schedule and staff work.” We can see if it fits,” he said. Bennett said. “
We think this is important and we think we can fund it,” Bennett said of the Southern recycling center. “We have the resources to do it. I have to.”
District Commissioner Chris Switzer said it was “realistic” to set up a Southern recycling center for the repairs needed to bring the former custom blender facility up and running in both the highway sector and recycling. I think it’s a few years away,” he said. center.
After the meeting, Nasser said 2022 will be a good year for recycling, with the county ending the year with 450 tons of recyclables. He said the launch in March of a new phone application that people use to determine what they can recycle and the start of glass recycling in August added to the collection. Between August and November he collected 46.9 tons of glass for recycling.
“It’s an increase of over 100 tonnes (in recyclables) from last year, and that doesn’t include glass,” Nasser said.
