OCTOBER 15, 2009 ISSUE
Boone Opens New Recycling Site at Horn in the West
Two-Month Pilot Program Targets Apartment Dwellers
Recycling containers for plastics, glass, cans, paper and pasteboard have been installed at the lower Horn in the West parking lot on Horn in the West Drive, adjacent to the Daniel Boone Native Gardens. Photo by Marsha Story
In response to the statewide ban of plastic bottles from landfills that took effect this month, the Town of Boone has opened a new drop-off site for recyclables at the Horn in the West lower parking lot on Horn in the West Drive.
The site will accept all plastic bottles and No. 1 and No. 2 plastics; clear, brown, blue and green glass; aluminum and steel cans; paper; and pasteboard, which includes cereal, beverage, dry food and shoe boxes and toilet paper and paper towel rolls. GDS, the company that contracts with the town for garbage and recycling pickup, installed the receptacles October 12.
“They have agreed to do a test run to see if this location will be good and if folks are going to use it,” said Marsha Story, Boone recycling coordinator. “Hopefully it will be a success to the point that we will be able to make it a permanent site.”
At this point, GDS is not charging the town an additional fee for the new site pickup, Story said.
Although some apartment complexes in town provide recycling bins for glass and aluminum, many do not provide bins for plastics because they fill up quickly and take up a lot of space.
“The biggest reason we’re doing it is because of the new bottle ban,” Story said. “A lot of apartment dwellers, if they don’t haul it to the landfill [container site on Highway 421], they’re not going to recycle it.”
The new site, Story added, is located close to the exact center of the Boone town limits.
“You can’t get any more convenient,” she said. “We wanted to be in a location that would be most convenient from all different directions.”
The new recycling site is a recommendation of the town’s Coordinated Recycling Committee. The pilot program will continue through mid-December, when town officials will assess its effectiveness and decide whether to make the Horn in the West location a permanent recycling site.
On September 17, the Boone Town Council approved a resolution proposed by the Coordinated Recycling Committee to prepare proposed changes to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to require apartment buildings to provide recycling containers where dumpsters are required or where curbside recycling is not available.
The proposed UDO text changes will be available for public comment at the November 2 quarterly public hearing at the Town Council Chambers on Blowing Rock Road.
For more information about the new recycling site or recycling in Boone, contact Story at 828-268-6230 or marsha.story@townofboone.net.
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