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Waste & Recycling March 13, 2018 08:30:11 AM

Virginia Region Recycling Facility Announces Permanent Closure

Waste Advantage
ScrapMonster Author
The Zion Crossroads facility, which has processed the commingled waste of nearly 30 private and municipal haulers in the region since 2009, announced the news on its website, with no early warning to customers.

Virginia Region Recycling Facility Announces Permanent Closure

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The news oozed out slowly, like ketchup that won’t quite shake loose from the bottle. Like the condiment, when the news finally popped, it made quite a mess.

The region’s primary municipal recycling facility, van der Linde Recycling and Container Rentals, suddenly and permanently closed its household waste processing on Feb. 19, leaving thousands of customers no easy way to recycle mountains of waste, and forcing local leaders to make hard choices.

The Zion Crossroads facility, which has processed the commingled waste of nearly 30 private and municipal haulers in the region since 2009, announced the news on its website, with no early warning to customers.

“[…] The decision to close our household waste processing facility was not an easy one as much time, effort and expense have gone into it,” the announcement read. “However, with the severe drop in commodity prices over the past few years and the bleak forecast, we have made the economic decision to close our household processing facility. […] Sincerely, Peter van der Linde.”

It took eight days for the announcement to find its way to the airwaves, and longer still to work its way through Twitter.

By last weekend, homeowners’ associations, such as the Old Trail Community Association, were alerting their members that anything put in their curbside trash would now be landfill material.
Residents reported hearing about the van der Linde closure from a variety of sources, mostly from the media. In fact, that’s how Boyd McCauley, owner of Time Disposal, said he heard it.

City-contracted trash and recycling is unaffected by the change. But some city residents had opted to use private haulers, like Time, for the convenience of commingling trash and recycling. And Albemarle County does not offer curbside waste management at all, leaving it all in the hands of residents and private haulers.

Last weekend, a few new faces were popping into the public McIntire Road Recycling Facility — a joint effort of Albemarle County and Charlottesville — as county residents scouted their remaining recycling options. Employees at the facility, however, said they have not noticed a surge — they’re still getting about 300 to 350 recyclers each day, one said.

“This is breaking our hearts,” said Ellen Sherwood, a Scottsville resident who visited the facility with her husband, Frank, for the first time last weekend.

“We thought we were being green — we’re old hippies who moved here from Massachusetts, and we’ve been touting Virginia’s single-stream recycling to all our friends around the country. None of them could believe it,” Sherwood said. “So, we were just really excited about this ‘progressive’ thing in little old Central Virginia.”

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantage.com

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