Recycling in the City of Staunton is about quality, not quantity.
One year ago, the city moved recycling from Gypsy Hill Park gym’s parking lot to Public Works on Craigmont Road in the West End.
“It’s more regulated up here,” said the city’s new director of Public Works, Dave Irvin. “There’s more oversight, because it’s really not the quantity of recycling, it’s the quality.”
He added that he thinks recycling has increased in that year where plastics, cardboard, aluminum, metal, steel and glass containers are accepted in a clean, supervised facility.
“Our attendants do a great job of just assisting the public,” Irvin said.
Superintendent of Public Works Christopher Lambert said that from July 2023 to June 2024, 31,000 individuals visited the recycling center. The number includes repeat visitors who bring recycling on a regular basis. An average of 150 visit each day, and one day last week 211 came to recycle products.
But the city’s focus is on the quality of recycling products, not how much is recycled. For example, attendants do not accept unclean containers or greasy pizza boxes, which can contaminate the rest of the recycle supply.
“It doesn’t become recyclable,” Irvin said.
According to Irvin, recycling at Gypsy Hill Park was used as a dumping site by residents with discarded items that could not be recycled.
Lambert, who has been with the city for 24 years, said that the recycling facility at Public Works prevents dumping because attendants are always on hand to monitor what is recycled.
Irvin said that at Gypsy Hill Park, the city’s recycling services were in the wrong place. Gypsy Hill Park is a Staunton Parks & Recreation area and a site of special events, including the city’s annual Happy Birthday America celebration in early July.
“It was taking up usable space,” Irvin said of recycling at Gypsy Hill Park, where a lot of products were recycled but space was not available. At Public Works, each material has its own enclosed area out of the weather.
Carts are available for resident use and attendants are available to answer questions.
Staunton Recycling Center hours of operation at 1911 Craigmont Road are Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.
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Rebecca Barnabi
