Cardboard is king at recycling center

Cardboard equals cash for the Rome-Floyd Recycling Center.

It’s the largest commodity for the center, both in terms of pounds recycled and in revenue generated.

Mary Hardin Thornton, director of the Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful program, and Michael Skeen, Floyd County public works director, briefed downtown merchants on the recycling effort at the monthly Downtown Coffee Break Friday at Roger Wade’s City Market, East First Street.

Recycling center reports show that the facility shipped 1,230 tons of cardboard through June and made approximately $14,629.

Skeen hopes the money set aside for the recycling program in the 2013 special purpose, local option sales tax can be used to protect their investment and clean up the existing county facility on Watters Street.

The $ 1.38 million earmarked in the SPLOST for the center will go towards the purchase of extra storage buildings, a baler to package the material, and a new covered sorting line that will increase sorting capacity at least 50 percent.

Much of the material collected at the local recycling center is sold to area vendors, Skeen said.

Marglen Industries on Ward Mountain Road in Shannon is frequently the high bidder for recycled plastics, which in turn is used in the manufacture of carpeting materials.

“They’re just waiting for you to drink more sodas and bottled water,” Skeen said.

The International Paper mill in Coosa is also a frequent buyer of cardboard products, much of which is actually made to begin with at its linerboard mill in Coosa.

A lot of the scrap metal is sold to Newell Recycling, which has a collection station on Ga. 53 northeast of Rome.

In other recycling news, the next Household Hazardous Waste Recycling Day will be Sept. 20. Residents can call the recycling center beginning Tuesday at 706291-5266 to get reservation times to drop off their material at the center. Computers and other electronics will also be accepted.

A free dump day also will be held on that same day at Cave Spring Elementary.

Skeen said he’s still awaiting the final calculations from the recent free dump day in Coosa, but estimated that close to 100 tons of trash was collected.