News

County to host Styrofoam recycling day

Chief Communications Officer Mike Morgan interviews Marcus Jones in the new 'What's Happening in Henderson County' series.

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 5, 2023

Love recycling? Mark Valentine's Day on the calendar.

Henderson County will host a foam recycling day on Tuesday, Feb. 14, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Convenience Center on Stoney Mountain Road.

Accepted materials are clean and dry food packaging, clamshell takeout containers, egg cartons, plates, coolers and rigid packing materials from electronics, appliances, furniture and other merchandise.

Mike Morgan, the county's new chief communications officer, and County Engineer Marcus Jones announced the recycling day when they "talked trash" during the second episode of the new county video series "What's Happening in Henderson County?" The first "What's Happening" featured Tax Administrator Darlene Burgess describing the countywide tax reappraisal process.

The county is able to accept Styrofoam now because a state grant enabled it to purchase a machine that condenses the material by a factor of 90.

"It is an amazing piece of equipment," Jones said. "It takes Styrofoam and reduces it 90 times. So we start with 90 (units) of Styrofoam and we end up with one and that of course makes it very feasible to transport.” The county hauls the condensed foam to a nonprofit in Winston Salem, which processes it with other recyclables and ships it to a manufacturer in the Northeastern U.S. that turns it into insulation.

It's a popular service, Jones added. Before the county had the machine in place to process it, foam was the most requested item residents wanted to be able to recycle.

https://vimeo.com/795699745Another popular service is food waste recycling.

“We started with a dropoff container at our convenience center for citizens to drop off and it became very popular very quick,” he said. “We're getting a lot of participation from it. And then we also are collecting organic material from our school system. Six out of the 22 schools are participating with their cafeteria food waste,” as is the county jail. "We mix the food waste with the thousands of tons a year of wood waste we get every year and process it on site to make it good usable compost,” Jones said.