A Short Blip on a Long Problem

A Short Blip on a Long Problem – (this post especially for Rockingham County, Va. citizens)

Have you given up recycling all the plastics we use? When I go to events such as the fair—or locally we have “lawn parties” that serve lots of food and drinks—and end up with bags and bags of items to be trashed—I cringe that more can’t be recycled. Especially aluminum pop and beer cans.

In the old old days – I’m talking when my husband was a kid for instance—he and numerous others would run around the lawn party grounds and collect GLASS pop bottles which were sent somewhere and he earned like 5 cents. Not each: He would collect 24 bottles (in a wooden box holding 24 bottles) and earn 5 cents for each set of 24 bottles he turned in. One night, he recalls, he made $4—a heady amount for an 8-10 year old kid in the 60’s. Equivalent to maybe $30-40 today, for a kid (according to one Inflation Calculator).

Now, stuff does get recycled, but more can be done. We have a large local dump and five more places in our county where stuff can be tossed into large bins. Sometimes people say or think that such items “just get hauled anyway to the top of the mound at the county dump.” In the past I have asked various people working at the dump if that was true. The responses were not strong – like they weren’t sure, or didn’t want to say.

Recently I asked that question again to a worker who looked like she knew what she was doing, and working hard. I told her some people thought trash was sent out to sea or buried in the growing dirt mountain at the dump.

So I said, “Can you tell me where the recyclables go?” She had a ready answer: “Stuff goes to Dave’s Recycling.” I was impressed. I used to take my recyclable stuff directly to Dave’s Recycling but when the local dump was improved (years ago now) and added numerous bins where we could put recyclables, we began just taking our stuff directly to those bins at the dump.

I looked up Dave’s Recycling and its website said it takes stuff directly—and of course also processes what comes from the bins at the landfill which get carried to Dave’s. [For locals, Dave’s Recycling is open 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday, and found at 130 Leray Circle in Harrisonburg.)

So that’s one convenient and efficient solution for paper to plastic to electronics to metals. Dave’s recycling accepts a wide range of material and can be found not far from the “Country Inn & Suites by Radisson” in Harrisonburg.

More info and comments here:

DAVE’S RECYCLING in Harrisonburg, VA 22801 – (540) 4…

The local Chamber of Commerce (at the link above) includes a listing of other recycling places in Harrisonburg, some where you get paid, especially when bringing scrap metal in.

Keep the Shenandoah Valley clean! And everywhere!