During Earth Month, Montgomery County officials boasted about the success of their recycling program and detailed plans to expand it.
The goal is to keep as much waste out of residents’ trash cans and the county landfill as possible. Instead, the county takes paper, cardboard, plastics, paint, batteries, mattresses and box springs, medical equipment, food waste and more to the Shady Grove Transfer Recycling Station.
Some of what is collected is sorted, cleaned and sold to companies for use in different ways. Other items, like bicycles and wheelchairs, are given to those who can’t afford to purchase them.
Montgomery County makes between $4 million and $5.5 million a year from its recycling program. Much of that money is used to cover the cost of collecting it, said Willie Waner, section chief of recycling and resources management at Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection.
Because almost 90% of the county’s mixed paper is sold within the United States, that program will not be affected by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Between 2020 and 2022:
- Plastic recycling increased by 110 percent
- Construction and demolition materials recycling increased by 58 percent
- Tire recycling increased by 32 percent
- Mixed paper recycling increased by 15 percent
- Electronics recycling increased by 7 percent
- Glass recycling increased by 3 percent
