Last week, county officials held a community open house at the Russell County Recycling Center to promote the three new mobile recycling trailers, which were purchased with a state recycling grant, according to Solid Waste Coordinator H.M Bottom.

The three new mobile trailers will be placed at several locations and the items have to be placed in plastic garbage bags to be recycled, according to Bottom.

The trailers will be set up at Lake Country Outdoors BP in Middletown, the Key Village Shopping Center area in Russell Springs and one in the Jamestown area, with the location being announced at a later date, according to Judge Executive Mickey Garner. He said the trailers will be set up at their respective locations at the first of the year.

Barry Prater, with Central Kentucky Fiber Resources where the county sells the products to be recycled, said Russell County, per capita diversion, sends more to be recycled than most communities in the state that his company deals with.

“If you took the same basic commodities of cardboard, plastic, aluminum cans, etc. and totaled it all up and used the same criteria for the other cities and municipalities, Russell County has got to be in the top 10,” Prater said.

He said he doubts that Lexington, as a large town, is doing any better by the numbers recycling than Russell County.

“The difference is the budget they have to work from,” Prater said.

He said the community should be proud of the recycling efforts and the strides that have been made within the last year by the recycling center.

The center also recently expanded their facility to take on a larger role in the community’s recycling.

“This makes Russell County look progressive,” Prater said. He called the work at the facility “transformational,” and that the county was making a statement for recycling in this region.

Garner, Bottom and others presented students from Union Chapel Elementary with their most recent recycling award as well as educated many who passed through the open house on how operations at the facility go down.

Troy “Blackie” Meadows at the recycling center said many Russell Countians still don’t know much about what goes on at the center.

Items such as food cans, soda bottles, milk jugs, glass, magazines, newspaper, junk mail, plastics, all types pf appliances, metal roofing, computers, cell phones and many other electronics are just some of the items that can be taken in.

“It is all brought in and crushed, bailed and shipped to Lexington,” Bottom said.

The facility even burns used motor oil for its heat, according to Bottom.

The facility cannot take Styrofoam, tires or plastic grocery bags.

Meadows said he sends out approximately a semi-truck load a week to Lexington or five in a month’s time.

Bottom said the recycling center employees travel around to many businesses, factories and the schools in the county, gathering cardboard and more to be recycled.

On a positive note, Bottom said the growth at the center was thankful to state grants and was not at local taxpayer’s expense.

Garner and Bottom both said they were extremely happy with the public turnout at the open house and anticipate even more to use the recycling center when the mobile trailers are set up in January.