Upgrade picks up recycling
center December 3, 2004
By GREG SPINKS
Contributing writer Erie Times
WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — Crawford County's recycling center has a whole
new look.
Two state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) grants
totaling about $3 million paid for recent upgrades to the facility.
The new recycling center opened Nov. 1.
The upgraded facility is located in West Mead Township at 11050
McHenry St. The new processing plant is open Monday through Friday
from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. But county residents and business owners
can bring recyclable items any time.
"We have bins at the center where people can leave their recyclables
any time," said facility operator Jim Mornewech. "In addition we
have 12 bins placed throughout the county which people can use."
The county recycling program began in West Mead Township in 1988.
Sponsored by the township, the program benefited the local fire
department. But recyclables soon swamped the center.
"Every year we saw incredible increases and people would drop things
off right on the ground," Mornewech said. "It took forever it seems
to process everything."
In 1999 the township center was transferred to the Crawford County
Solid Waste Authority. Design work and planning for an improved
center began.
Today, the upgraded facility can process 4,000 tons of material
every year and can be upgraded to handle as many as 7,000 tons with
a few simple additions to the machinery, said Etienne Ozoark,
executive director of the Crawford County Solid Waste Authority.
"With the new equipment we have installed, what took the center two
weeks to do can now be done in a day or so," Ozoark said. "In the
old facility, we could only process about 1,500 tons per year."
From the DEP grants, the authority spent $1.5 million on the new
processing building and between $400,000 and $600,000 on new
machinery and administrative fees.
"The rest of the money was spent on engineering fees and licenses,"
Ozoark said.
The result has exceeded expectations, said DEP's Guy McUmber, who
worked with county officials on the center.
"They just do a fantastic job," he said. "It is unique because this
is a rural area and the recycling mandate was for the more urban
counties. It is not the only rural center but is one of the best in
western Pennsylvania."
The West Mead facility and a network of drop-off centers serve all
of Crawford County. And residents are using them as public education
about recycling continues, McUmber said.
"The county has an excellent educational program," he said. "You
cannot have a high-quality recycling program without a good public
education campaign."
Emphasized in that education effort is that materials that can be
recycled do not have to be buried in landfills.
The West Mead recycling center accepts steel and aluminum cans,
cardboard, newspapers, magazines and office paper, glass and plastic
bottles.
"We cannot accept materials such as tires and oil because we do not
have those permits," Ozoark said.
The processing center also receives recyclables from Mercer County,
which delivers to West Mead Township.
"We don't have to pick it up. That would be a big expense," Ozoark
said. "So whatever profits Mercer County gets from the recyclable
materials we give that to them."
Crawford County has two drivers who travel the county to retrieve
recyclables from drop-off sites in the county.
And with materials now being recycled almost as soon as they reach
the center, the new facility is expected to be self-sustaining,
Ozoark said.
"We receive about 75 percent of the money we need to operate from
the sale of the processed material," he said. "We also get an
additional $125,000 funding from Crawford County and the difference
is made up in various landfill fees and the like."
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