As the Georgetown-Scott County Recycling Center closes today, the Rumpke Transfer Station is taking on services to help residents continue to go green.
In an interlocal agreement between the City of Georgetown and the Scott County Tax Court, all recycling services have been transferred to the Rumpke Transfer Station, located at 245 West Yusen Drive near Triport Road. Executive Judge Joe Pat Covington told the News-Graphic in an interview on Wednesday that the station would be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. for residents to drop off their recyclables .
“Honestly, I think it’s a good opportunity for citizens. The service is being transitioned at no cost to the community, and the Rumpke Transfer Station will continue to provide the same services provided by the Georgetown-Scott County Recycling Center,” Covington said.
The Rumpke Transfer Station accepts the following items: paper products (carton must fit inside cart); plastic bottles and jugs (replace lids); metal cans (non-hazardous/non-flammable material only); glass bottles and jars (any color); scrap metal and miscellaneous electronic equipment; and cartons (remove caps and straws).
Covington said large items such as refrigerators, stoves and air conditioners are also acceptable.
“For a refrigerator to be accepted, it must have a sticker from a service technician to verify that the Freon has been removed. These large items will need to be put down,” he said.
Residents can call the Rumpke Transfer Station at 1-800-828-8171 for questions about other items. An updated list will soon be available on the Scott County website (scottky.gov).
A new voucher program will also be available, giving residents the ability to carry four small loads to Rumpke for free.
“We’re trying to help people who can clean a house or move house,” Covington said. “The sad reality is that people will go out and throw things away, and we’re providing that as a benefit to the community so they don’t feel pressured into doing that.”
Locals will go online to the Scott County website (scottky.gov) and register with their email address to receive their vouchers.
“We are really excited about the voucher program and how it can help our citizens,” said Georgetown Mayor Tom Prather. “In the past, we could offer our citizens one free discharge day per month. You could bring a pickup load or a trailer load of household trash, something you could have cleaned up in a shed, to the landfill for free one Saturday a month while the landfill was still open.
Prather said the free dump day was a popular service for Georgetown residents, many of whom took advantage of it until the dump closed several years ago.
“We lost that free dump day, and we were looking for a replacement for that. This new voucher system will accomplish what we are trying to do. What’s so much better is that an owner can choose the day they want to redeem their voucher instead of a specific Saturday.
Prather added since the location is now Rumpke’s transfer station, residents never have to leave the tarmac.
“It used to be that when you went to the dump you had to go back to the dump and it was pretty rough terrain for your car or your truck,” he said.
He added that the city will still have curbside recycling every two weeks through Republic Services. For larger items, however, locals will have to pay a fee to have them picked up.
“There will be a learning curve for all of us to get used to how it works, but we think it will give us the chance to make Georgetown even cleaner,” Prather said.
Although city and county government officials seem excited about the transition with Rumpke’s transfer station, concerned citizen Becky Snodgrass disagrees.
“I understand that it was funded half by the city and half by the county, and now that the city has its own recycling and its own garbage collection, citizens have access to recycling, but that does not include large products. If they get large products that are scavenged by the Republic [Services]I understand they go straight to the landfill,” she said.
“So, I mean, just trying to be wary of taking care of our environment, it seems like we’re just going in the wrong direction. I envision people not paying for fridges, microwaves, stoves , weeders and all those things that you see along the road, they won’t pay to have these picked up, they’ll just go and dump them somewhere in a field or on an embankment. I just think that It’s a shame that our community is shutting down such a recycling resource. A lot of very conscious people are still bringing things for recycling. They’re just angry about it.
Snodgrass said she thinks Covington would be able to change that, but added that she thinks the county will need the appropriate funding to pay for the services.
“From what I understand, everyone’s budgets are so tight that they’re cutting instead of adding, but it seems there might be a better way,” she said.
Locals with questions regarding the transition or vouchers may contact the Scott County Executive Judge’s Office at 502-863-7850 or by contacting Georgetown City Hall at 502-863-9800.