The Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority will no longer accept recyclables from businesses in Kanawha County.
The new policy comes as the Solid Waste Authority is looking for a way to stop hemorrhaging money.
"We're basically subsidizing their recycling, in essence," James Young, the Solid Waste Authority's director, said of local businesses.
Young said that businesses often send trucks full of cardboard, which is worth very little in the recycling market, sometimes five times a week.
The Solid Waste Authority will stop accepting loads from those trucks today.
Young said that nonprofit groups, like the YMCA, will still be able to bring their recyclables to the Slack Street drop-off location.
"This is definitely not the long-term solution that is going to resurrect recycling, but we are confident that this is going to sustain things," Young said.
The Solid Waste Authority Board had been discussing big plans about purchasing a building where it would be able to process recyclables without having to pay to have them processed.
But after Young met with Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper, the two decided to try to make the Solid Waste Authority's current operation more efficient rather than purchasing a new building.
"This is a baby step in the right direction," Young said. "There's just so much uncertainty in recycling right now."
Young said that the recycling market was poised for a comeback, but WV Cashin', the Nitro company that processed Kanawha County's recyclables, recently ended its contract with the county, according to Young.
The Solid Waste Authority has started bringing its recyclables to Beckley instead, where Charleston and South Charleston bring theirs.
Young said that the added mileage to Beckley won't cost them more money than the trips to Nitro and that the only product that has a market right now is metals.
Both Charleston and South Charleston have given a verbal commitment to the Solid Waste Authority, saying that if it can get a processing plant up and running, the cities will start bringing their recyclables. But getting a processing facility started has been difficult.
Young thought that he might have a chance to use grants from the state to purchase a new building, but was turned down.
As the Solid Waste Authority approached bankruptcy, Young took a job with the County, freeing up his salary from the Solid Waste Authority's budget.
Originally, Young was going to continue as interim director for six months while the Solid Waste Authority found a replacement, but now Young says that he will stay on longer in hopes that he can get the Solid Waste Authority back on its feet.
"We've got to learn how to kind of walk on our own before we grow in any way," Young said.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.