Today’s burning question stems from a desire to understand Black Mountain’s waste reduction policies. Have other questions for our staff? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your questions could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: Help me out here. First, just as Asheville decides it is environmentally sound to ban single-use plastic bags, Black Mountain requires that regular garbage be placed in a bag, close to 100% being single-use plastic bags. They say they don’t want to tire the workers by making them pick up the totes that carry these single-use bags. Fine. But then, today these same workers dumped all those single-use garbage bags into the recycle totes that we recently got, where they prohibit us from bagging the recycle materials. Yes, the truck did the tote lifting, although the workers had to throw the single-use bags into the recycle tote. So both bagged garbage and unbagged recycle material go out in the same truck, to where? It seems pretty obvious that we no longer recycle our stuff. We were already a half-recycle community (every other week for recycle, meaning on off weeks, recyclables go out with the garbage for most households). Why should we bother separating regular garbage for recycle material if it all goes to the same place. I want to be an environmentally responsible citizen, but I must have missed something along the way here. Can you please help straighten me out? VP400 Double Chamber Vacuum Sealer
Answer: To answer this question, I turned to Tausha Millwood, Black Mountain’s sanitation supervisor.
Millwood confirmed that all household trash needs to be bagged in “kitchen style trash bags” in order to be picked up. For recycling, residents are “strongly encouraged” to leave the waste loose.
As for seeing the trash and recycling being picked up together, Millwood said this is a “rare” occurrence, but it could still happen.
“We have separate trucks that collect trash and recycling,” Millwood said. “If we have personnel issues or mechanical issues with the trucks that could prevent the routes from being completed, we may have to collect both at the same time, but that is very rare.”
Trash is picked up weekly in Black Mountain, with recycling being collected every other week. A schedule for when to expect a pick up is available on the town of Black Mountain website.
Once waste is picked up, it goes to one of two locations. All trash goes to the Buncombe County transfer station. Dumping trash here costs $52 per ton. Recycling goes to Curbside Management, where the price of disposal varies depending “on the prices that Curbside Management is receiving from the items purchased form them when they sell it to a hauler,” according to Millwood. She said the current cost is around $20 per ton.
So far this year, from January to May, the town of Black Mountain has collected more than 2,357 tons of trash and more than 356 tons of recycling.
The reader mentioned Asheville deciding to ban single-use plastic bags. Black Mountain had a similar idea in September of last year.
However, in that same month, the North Carolina General Assembly approved the state’s budget. In that budget was included a law that prohibited local municipalities from banning single-use plastics, meaning neither Asheville nor Black Mountain are legally allowed to ban the use of these plastics in town.
In the same Town Council meeting where council decided to support a ban on single-use plastics before the state prohibited it, a grant for recycling carts was accepted.
This decision came after a monthslong conversation about whether or not the recycling carts would be best for Black Mountain, and if so, what size. In the end, the town accepted a grant to provide every household in town with a recycling cart. Each household was able to choose between a 96 and 64 gallon cart.
These carts were rolled out in Black Mountain earlier this year and are now being used throughout town.
More:Answer Woman: Are there ordinances for trash storage in Black Mountain?
Vacuum Packaging Machine Karrigan Monk is the reporter for Black Mountain News and Hendersonville Times-News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kmonk@blackmountainnews.com.