North Ironton bins to be relocated

It was a banner year for Christmas tree recycling — that was the word this week from Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management officials.

Director Dan Palmer said 165 fresh cut trees were collected at six sites throughout the county, the most of any year since the program began. Compare this to last year when officials collected 150 trees during the recycling program.

The solid waste district partners with the U.S Forestry Service, which uses the trees as fish habitat in Lake Vesuvius.

Palmer said he is also pleased with the tonnage of recyclable materials collected at the 34 recycling sites in the two counties. Last year, 1,589 tons of recyclable materials were kept out of a landfill.

“We are so pleased with the way the sites are being used. The biggest ones (in terms of tonnage) are the Sam’s/Walmart site in Burlington and Foodfair in Proctorville. These sites are used overwhelmingly,” Palmer said.

“We get a lot of people from West Virginia who use these sites,” education coordinator Stephanie Helms added.

The bins are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Acceptable items are paper, plastic #1 (beverage bottles) and #2 (milk and juice jugs, liquid detergent bottles, trash bags, etc.), aluminum, glass and steel cans.

Palmer said the recycling bins in the north end of Ironton are getting a new home. The bins are being moved from 1007 N. Second St. (the former Citti’s Grocery Store) to the Ironton Elementary/Middle School site. The site is not ready for use at this time and Palmer said he would inform the public when the bins are ready for use.

“It will be open to the public,” Palmer said. “We thank (Ironton School Superintendent) Dean Nance for his cooperation and everything he has done. I think its fair to locate in the north end of town and have bins available to the people in that end of the city.”

As for litter pickup, Lawrence County litter crews alone cleaned 5,565 bags of trash from roadways in 2011. Palmer said 463 miles of highway were cleaned and 4,614 man hours were spent on this work.

Palmer said the figures would have been higher if the recycling trailer had not been rear-ended at a stop sign in Ironton in November, putting it out of commission for two months.

 

Find a recycling station near you

Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District recycling bins are available at: Ohio University, 1804 Liberty Ave.; the Eagles parking lot, 1305 So. 3rd St., Ironton; Lawrence County Municipal Court, County Road 1 in Chesapeake; the Perry Township Fire Department, County Road 1 in Sheridan; Food Fair, State Route 7 in Proctorville; Food Fair on Solida Road in South Point; Sam’s Club in Burlington; at both stations of the Rome Township Volunteer Fire Department on State Route 7; at the Coal Grove Village Hall on Carlton-Davidson Lane and at the U.S. Forestry service office on State Route 93 in Elizabeth Township.