By Gary Nelson
Senior staff writer
CROSSVILLE —
What was once a far-fetched dream decades ago has become a reality at the Cumberland County Recycling Center.
After the purchase of a glass crushing and recycling machine, the county has an opportunity to save taxpayers thousands of dollars and benefit the environment.
"The more glass we get, the more (money) we can save the county from landfill fees," said Mike Harvel, Cumberland County Recycling Center employee. Harvel is also a 7th District county commissioner.
Several months ago, upon Harvel's recommendation, as well as Cumberland County Mayor Kenneth Carey Jr., the county purchased a glass crushing and recycling machine for the Solid Waste Department. The machine cost $93,793 and was purchased from the Andela Products Company of Richfield Springs, NY.
The county approved spending up to $100,000 for the machine and Tom Breeden, solid waste director, Harvel and Cumberland County Mayor Carey traveled to Florida, which was the the closest location to see one of the machines in operation.
"I knew it could work for us here because we were losing so much money in tipping fees paying $30 a ton for it to go to a landfill," Harvel said.
The machine breaks the glass and finishes it into a variety of shapes and sizes from a sand-like dust to gravel, chips or mulch-like stone. The finished products are not jagged and will not cut and can be used for a multitude of things including sand for playgrounds, landscaping decoration and for traction on roadways in the winter.
Scott Blaylock, Cumberland County Road superintendent, has already purchased some from the recycling center at $5 per ton and has used some on the county roads the past couple of snowfalls.
"We're also going to market it and sell it to the public. We're going to stock pile it and sell it for landscaping material and use it at the road department during the winter in place of sand for the roads," Harvel said.
Mayor Carey and Harvel said the operation of the machine is a one-man job, which Harvel runs for about one to two hours per day.
The machine contains a bin where the glass is loaded, it then is crushed by a series of hammers on a crank that breaks the glass down into tiny pieces and then finishes it into different sizes. Paper, labels, corks and waste are separated into another bin at the end of the conveyor.
"I've run about 10 tons of glass through this so far and it's only produced about 600 pounds of waste — that's a pretty big savings right there," Harvel said.
"It should take less than a year for this machine to pay for itself in the savings alone," said Mayor Carey.
There are only six other machines like this in the southeastern United States.
"Not everybody has got one of these machines lying around. We're pretty happy to have it and it's going to benefit our county," Harvel said.
Harvel and Carey said they hope the community will help the county save more money by recycling their glass products, as well as the environment.
"We have a glass bin up here at the recycling center that people can dump their glass in and there are bins out at all our convenience centers in the county. Any bottles, jars or glass containers are okay," Harvel said.
He said people can just dump them in the bin, preferably out of a bag or box.
If left in the bag, the plastic can sometimes jam the machine.
"That's about the worst problem we have with it. If people will just dump their glass into the bins and not leave them in bags, we would really appreciate it," Harvel said. "So far we have a lot of people who are already recycling glass, but we want to get the word out so that more will start doing it."
In the future the county may start selling some of the glass products made by the machine to the public.
"After we get some stockpiled we'll start selling it and it will be priced comparable to mulch," Carey said. "This will last longer than mulch and it wont fade."
Since the closure of the Cumberland County landfill earlier this year, county officials have been looking at ways to save more money and recycle more.
"I never thought I'd see the day when you could do something like this with glass, but I'm glad it works," Harvel said.
For more information about the recycled glass, or about purchasing the product, call Mike Harvel at the Cumberland County Recycling Center at 484-9328.
