Jefferson County’s first county-operated, staffed recycling center is set to open. The new center is on the site of a former fleet services building at 355 Elm St. in Hillsboro, one block north of the Fletcher House historic site. An employee will be at the recycling center to help visitors drop off their paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal recyclables. Hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Wednesday. “They’ll be able to drive right in (and) we’re going to have a guy there to help them take stuff out of their car, and then drive on out,” said Robert Bradshaw, the county’s recycling coordinator. “We’re looking to see when people come in; we’re going to keep track of how many people come in and what times and keep track of where those people are from. “Anybody from the county can come, but we want to see who we’re servicing and eventually if we need to put a (facility) somewhere else in the county, to help more people.”

The facility and the employee are funded through a pair of grants totaling $250,000 from the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District, which receives its funding through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The grants also covered the cost of a truck and trailer for the county’s recycling efforts, County Services Director Eric Larson said. “People probably need to know that these grants are paid for not with tax money, but with tipping fees that waste haulers pay landfills,” he said.

The new recycling center features five steel bins, each capable of containing eight cubic yards of material, and a building that provides office space and storage space for equipment, Bradshaw said.

To read the full story, visit https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/jefferson-county-to-open-first-staffed-recycling-center/article_ad6de4ca-0f25-11eb-947b-93aa19dd0c2b.html.
Authors: Gordon Bess and Steve Taylor, Leader Publications
Image: Gordon Bess, Leader Publications

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