VIDEO: Corbin recycling program blazed trail for others to follow

In 1995, no city or county governments in the tri-county area were involved in any measurable way in the recycling business.

Bigger cities had begun to test the waters of collecting recyclables from their citizens, but it had long been assumed to be cost prohibitive and unfeasible for smaller communities.

Former Corbin Mayor Scott Williamson remembers well how citizens of the town, centered in an area not really know for its environmental awareness at the time, were doggedly progressive on the issue. They wanted to recycle and they wanted to do it soon. In a rare example of truly effective grass roots, bottom-up democracy, citizens nearly demanded the town “go green” before such an idea was even trendy.

“We kept having quite a bit of questions and concerns from the public about getting into the recycling business,” Williamson, now a pharmaceutical lobbyist, said. “We agreed with all of that, but didn’t really know exactly how to do it. We didn’t know if we could do it, quite frankly.”

Then Williamson and other city leaders attended a presentation on the issue by Mickey Mills, who was Mayor of Frankfort at the time and owner of the newly opened Bluegrass Recycling Company. Sponsored by the Kentucky League of Cities, the presentation was an eye opener.

“It sounded good. We asked him to come down to Corbin and talk to us about it and he did,” Williamson said. “After that, we started it literally on a shoestring … but the demand was there and is really kind of surprising how it grew.”

In late 1995, the city’s Recycling Center consisted of a mobile trailer parked outside the Public Works garage on U.S. 25N just near the Laurel-Whitley County line. A small porch was built onto the trailer. Current Recreation Department Director Marlon Sams was named the center’s first “director” and managed the facility with its only other employee – Greg Ison, who took over shortly thereafter.

With a hand-me-down pickup truck from the Public Works Department, the two would collect cardboard from local businesses and accept other recyclables from area citizens.

Thanks to grant funding, both state and federal, the city was able to buy equipment, including a packer. In 1996, the recycling center finally got a decent home. The city agreed to rent the old Hopper-Graybeal Auto Parts Store just across from the City Utilities Commission offices on Main Street.

“I remember, I was Building Inspector at the time, so I would do that job, and do building inspection too. It kept me pretty busy,” Sams said. “Greg would go out and get cardboard and we would get other stuff. We’d separate all of it. It was basically just an experiment to see how it would go and it really snowballed from there. At the time, nobody else was doing it. London wasn’t and Williamsburg didn’t have it. Neither did Barbourville.”

The duo would go to area schools and preach the importance of recycling to local children; a move they both say has paid off.

Again with the help of grant funding, the city purchased the old Central Automotive building, next to city hall, and turned it into the current Recycling Center. Ison, now director of the program, points to this past Christmas as a sign of how it has grown. Area residents unloaded literally thousands of pounds of boxes, wrapping paper and other material after the holidays. A mobile recycling trailer the city purchased just this past year was filled to capacity and had to be emptied twice, requiring employees to work on time when city services are typically shut down.

“There’s people that are really into it now,” Ison said. “It’s caught on with just about everyone. We stay busy all day long just about every day. Our biggest problem now is not having enough recyclable, but having space to put it all. We are just running out of room.”

The program that started with practically no budget received $196,000 in funding from the city this fiscal year and has five employees. Although the market is volatile, the center makes back about a fourth of its budgeted amount annually.

Corbin City Manager Bill Ed Cannon the city is committed to continuing a robust recycling program for its citizens as a service, even if it is never profitable.

“The interest is there and I think it is just the responsible thing to do,” Cannon said. “If we can help keep it out of the landfill and reuse it again, how can that be a bad thing? It’s just something else our kids and grandkids won’t have to deal with.”

“It is absolutely the responsible thing to do and I think in the future you will see it do nothing but grow.”
Last year, Corbin’s Recycling Center took in 291 tons of recyclable material.
Current Corbin Mayor Willard McBurney said he has started recycling in recent years and calls the program important and necessary.

“I very seldom drive by the Recycling Center when there is not a customer or two customers bringing in some stuff,” McBurney said. “People really like it. Everything that is taken there is something that we don’t have to put in the dump. The more recycling people do, the less we have to pay for waste disposal. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Williamson said once the recycling program caught on in Corbin, city leaders even floated the idea of a facility that would utilize recyclable material and even some garbage as a way to generate energy. Cannon confirmed that other cities do supplement their power needs this way and that Corbin had considered a facility in western Knox County to do just that.

Williamson said the idea met with opposition from citizens in the area, so was scratched. Still, he said it is a testament to forward thinking on the issue over a decade ago.
“Corbin, in a lot of ways, is progressive,” Williamson said. “I think people sometimes forget that. Is it the most progressive town around? No. Has it made great strides? Absolutely. I think on this issue, Corbin led the way because it kind of caught on in other places around us after we did it. I’m proud of that.”