Berkeley County Announces Groundbreaking of New Recycling Facility

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Berkeley County, South Carolina will break grounds on new recycling facility at 646 Oakley Road in Moncks Corner. The official groundbreaking ceremony of the ‘Berkeley County Recycling and Recovery Facility’ will be held at 10 a.m. on 17th April, County officials said.

The County had entered into recycling contract with S.C-based RePower South (RPS), upon expiry of the previous contract with Sonoco. The County had been in talks with RPS for a long time in search of an ideal arrangement that could boost County recycling rates by providing recycling services to residents at no extra cost. Furthermore, residents need not have to sort the recyclables, County staff noted.

Berkeley County Supervisor Bill Peagler stated that the facility aims to encourage environment-friendly recycling among citizens, without having to face the difficulties involved in sorting their waste. Bob Shepard, President, RPS stated that the new system will ensure cost-effective recycling solution to the community.

As per agreement, Berkeley County will pay processing charges to RPS. The residual after the extraction of recyclable material will be landfilled, for which the company will pay the County. The public-private partnership will operate on the landfill, for which the County will be paid lease fee. The County will also receive a share of revenue generated from sale of recyclable materials. Incidentally, the facility is designed to segregate recyclables for recycling. Some of the remaining polymers and fibers will be made into pellets, which in turn could be used to fuel coal plants.

The proposed facility is expected to process 50 tons of mixed waste per hour. The facility, whose construction works have already begun, is expected to become fully operational by early-2019. As per estimates, the proposed single-stream processing facility is expected to create nearly 60 new jobs in Berkeley County.