Director of recycling division urges wait on materials facility

A county needs a 25 percent recycling rate to support an MRF; Mahoning's is only about 10 percent.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- James Petuch is standing firm in his belief that construction of a materials recycling facility should not be rushed.
In the six months since Petuch took over the job of director of Mahoning County's recycling division, 103 new public and private entities in the county have begun recycling. Petuch said that's a good start toward beefing up recycling tonnage, but not nearly enough to warrant quick construction of a materials recycling facility, or MRF.
The recycling division has an MRF committee focused on studying the viability of such an operation.
About two dozen recycling officials from Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania met in September at Youngstown State University for a symposium on MRFs. Among those attending were officials from Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Stark and Tuscarawas counties in Ohio and Lawrence County in Pennsylvania.
"If you try to build an MRF in a hurry, it will go belly up," he said. "There's an investment of about $500,000 to $600,000 just for the equipment.
"I am dead serious about getting our recycling numbers up," he said. "I want to see an MRF in the county; but If we can't support it, it will die, and there will be red ink all over the place."
Vital contributions
Petuch said contributions of recyclables from the region are vital to making an MRF possible. Many more Mahoning County people need to recycle as well, he said.
He said a county has to have a 25 percent recycling rate to support an MRF, and Mahoning County's recycling rate is about 10 percent.
"You need about 40,000 tons of recyclables per year, not 7,000," he said. "You need a couple thousand tons of paper at $30 a ton. You need a couple hundred cubes of aluminum, not 10."
"We want to have 10 new drop-off sites in the county by the end of the year," he said. "We are working well with city officials and sheriff's deputies are enforcing littering laws, doing a good job busting people for littering and illegal dumping. We're sending the message that we're not going to tolerate that."
Improving sites
Petuch said his staff is working to improve recycling sites in the county with concrete pads and fencing. People will be more inclined to recycle if the drop-off site is neat and clean, he said.
He said the drop-off site in Austintown on Raccoon Road is the county's most active recycling location. The recycling division recently helped the township with improvements there, including a new concrete pad, new fencing and six recycling bins.
Petuch said a draft of a new recycling plan for the county for 2007 through 2010 is due to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in two weeks. The recycling division's policy committee met this week and recommended Petuch send the draft to the OEPA.
Petuch emphasized the nearly 400-page document is a draft. He anticipates the OEPA will recommend changes.
He said the recycling division's policy committee also voted to extend the terms of committee members Brian Mitchell and Tom Yanko through October 2007. Mitchell is a retiree from Lake Milton, and Yanko, of Poland, is owner of Associated Paper Stock in North Lima.
tullis@vindy.com