Recycling gets a bad rap. Some think it’s a hoax. Some can’t decide what goes in which bin. And yet, Mecklenburg County’s recycling program diverts more than 100,000 tons of materials from landfills each year — and it’s about to get an upgrade.
The new Pence Road Materials Recovery Facility will process the county’s recyclables, while the old facility on Amble Drive is being upgraded with new material separators. These facilities are where recyclables go after being collected from the county's green curbside bins.
- Curious what goes in the bin? Here's a list of materials Mecklenburg County accepts for curbside pickup.
The old facility will close next week, but curbside recycling will continue unchanged.
This interim facility will shift to recycling commercial waste in 16 to 18 months, when the Amble Drive MRF reopens.
“As our community grows, we got a lot of wood products — plywood, brick, block and things like that,” said Mecklenburg County Solid Waste and Recycling Director Jeff Smithberger. “Those things will come here to this facility to be able to be recycled.”
Mecklenburg County also collects recyclables at full-service and self-service drop-off centers. Some materials are processed within the county, and most of the rest of these materials remain regional, if not local. South Carolina vendors receive paper and cardboard, while glass and aluminum are sent to Georgia or Tennessee. The wealth of industrial manufacturers in the southeast has insulated Mecklenburg’s solid waste department from the tariffs, according to Smithberger.
County Commissioner Elaine Powell, chair of the county’s Environmental Stewardship Committee, attended the ribbon-cutting. This facility will process 300 to 350 tons of materials per day. How much of that gets recycled or reused depends on residents — and what they choose to throw in which bin.
“We will never build another landfill in Mecklenburg County,” Powell said. “We don’t have enough land left.”
