A Charleston city councilman proposed a new recycling plan Thursday evening that he says wouldn't cost the city additional money.
Councilman Cubert Smith, who represents Ward 8, during a meeting of the City Council's Committee on Environment and Recycling outlined a multi-section proposal that would eliminate single stream recycling and discontinue the practice of trucking collected recyclables to the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority in Beckley.
The first piece of Smith's plan would call for businesses located in Charleston to report their monthly tonnage of recyclables in order to get a more accurate figure of how much is being recycled.
Smith personally spoke with officials at Sam's Club, Kroger, Charleston Area Medical Center and more than 15 other businesses who agreed that they'd be willing to report their monthly recycling totals.
Smith said the city shouldn't be trucking recyclables down to Beckley and should instead find more local options.
In June, the Gazette-Mail reported the findings of a city-led recycling participation study, which determined Charleston spends nearly $52,000 annually to transport recyclables to Beckley.
Workers take about five truckloads to Raleigh County each week, which would likely increase if more people recycled.
At the cost of saving money and lowering its carbon footprint, however, curbside recycling would be more limited under Smith's proposal.
While single stream collection would be eliminated, the city also would no longer accept aluminum or plastic.
Instead, they would need to take those items to West Virginia Cash-In & Recycling in Nitro, or Capitol Recycling Inc., in Kanawha City.
Under Smith's proposal, the city would handle yard waste, metal appliances and dry newspaper through curbside collection.
Currently, yard waste is taken to the Copenhaver Compost Facility in North Charleston and metal appliances are sold to the Progress Metal Reclamation Company in Ashland, Kentucky.
Smith's proposal would establish an agreement with West Virginia Cash-In to handle newspaper.
Under West Virginia state code, cities with a population over 10,000 people are required to have curbside recycling collection. Cities with those programs must offer to collect at least three types of items, but it's unclear whether appliances or other items, such as tires, are considered recyclables under state code.
Some committee members expressed concern over no longer picking up certain items.
"I think most people today [recycle] cans and plastic. Are they going to be more likely or less likely to take them somewhere else, versus curbside pickup?" Councilman Mike Clowser asked.
"That's what I'd explain to them - what we all are doing, we all have to have something in the game," Smith replied.
City Manager David Molgaard voiced similar concerns.
"The real issue that's being begged here is a residential curbside pickup program that excludes plastic, aluminum and metal cans," Molgaard said. "If we exclude all that, can we convince the public we have a socially responsible recycling program?"
The committee agreed to have the city's legal department review Smith's proposal to determine if it would be compliant with state code before drafting a bill.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.