Recycling suspended at the armory

The Hot Springs County Recreation Department has suspended recycling at the armory for the time being.

Recreation Director Brad Morrison said Riverton has issued a new protocol for recycling. Recyclable materials can no longer just be loaded up on a trailer every Friday and taken down.

"What they are saying now is that they no longer accept glass," Morrison said. "They'll only take Type 1 and Type 2 plastics, and it has to be uncontaminated and pre-sorted."

Type 1 plastics are polyethylene terephtalate, also known as PETE or PET. These plastics are usually clear in color, such as disposable water and soda bottles. Type 2 plastics are high-density polyethylene, also known as HDPE. This includes most milk jugs, juice bottles, detergent bottles, butter tubs and toiletries bottles.

Previously, they were accepting aluminum, plastics, glass and newspapers.

Morrison said what has been happening is that some individuals are putting the wrong material in the wrong place. When this happens, the whole load then becomes contaminated. When the load arrives in Riverton contaminated, it is then treated as garbage and is no longer recyclable. There is also a fee, which the Recreation Department cannot afford to pay, when recyclable materials are contaminated and treated as garbage.

"The majority of people are responsible but it is evident that some are not," Morrison said. "If one person out of 100 puts the wrong thing in the wrong place, it becomes contaminated and the load is no good."

Morrison said they do not have the means to supervise what is going in the recycling trailer nor can they sort it, with only a two-person operation.

"We don't know what organization might could help," he said. "We're weighing our options with different organizations that could possibly sort it."

Recycling is not a small process, he said. It takes a forklift and they have to make sure no one puts anything in the wrong place.

"If there's an organization that wants to sort it and haul it, that would be great," Morrison said. "I don't think this will be a quick fix, but if anyone has any ideas or options that might help, please let us know."