County Recognized for Recycling a Million Pounds Last Year
Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB), a non-profit that assists local recycling programs across the state, awarded the Fayette County Recycling Program a certificate for “outstanding recycling efforts” in 2020.
KTB’s Rachel Hering presented the award at a Commissioners Court meeting last Thursday, April 22, which happened to be Earth Day.
“Last year Fayette County Recycled over a million pounds of material,” Hering said. “That not only saves a lot of space in the landfill, but there are also environmental savings associated with it as well. It is a really good program and we are very proud of that.
Hering also presented a special award to retired Pct. 4 Commissioner Tom Muras for starting the recycling program and leading it until his retirement last year. Muras was on hand to accept the award.
After Muras retired, the Commissioners made the recycling program into a separate county department and appointed Paul Zapalac as its department head.
Herring said her organization calculated that the County recycled 21 million pounds of material during Muras’ career. Zapalac said the number is actually much larger.
“Those numbers don’t include brush, paint, any of the scrap metal that we take,” Zapalac said. “The number is much larger because that stuff doesn’t go through Keep Texas Beautiful. Think about it, we’ve got 15,000 cubic yards of mulch down there this year. Think about that over 20 years, and we’ve got a great environmental impact savings.”
The Commissioners also thanked Muras for his service.
“You’ve always been there to help us over the years,” Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel said to Muras. “I think Paul (Zapalac) is doing a super job following in behind you. I couldn’t be prouder of the program we have and the guys who are operating it. Thank you very much.”
Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff recalled the early days of the recycling program when he began working for the County under Muras in 1995.
“It’s not easy work now, but compared to back then, it has come a long way,” Berckenhoff said. “You had to do a lot of things by hand, but now we have balers and better equipment.
“I have cousins who live in San Antonio, and they come down here and say they wish they had something like this back home, because it would make their city so much nicer,” Berckenhoff added. “We’re way ahead of the pace over here in Fayette County.”
Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann said he never realized how many County residents recycle before he started working for the County.
“You can come over on a Saturday morning to the Schulenburg recycling center, and that’s a happening place,” Brossmann said.
County Judge Joe Weber thanked his predecessor Ed Janecka and all the former commissioners who helped start the recycling program.
“We do some things up here that I know some people aren’t always happy about,” said Weber. “But I know one thing, if we ever cancel the recycling program in this County, they’d run us all out of here.”
The Judge’s remark earned a good laugh from the audience.
“I appreciate all of the good words, but I was just part of the process,” Muras said. “If you take all the people who served on Commissioners Court since the 1990s, the previous judge, the judge we have now, and all the people of the County, then I will accept the award on behalf of them.
“It’s like (Judge Weber) said, if we stopped recycling, there would be some protests,” he added.
In Other Recycling News
In other recycling news at last Thursday’s meeting, Commissioners approved an agreement with the company Garden-Ville for annual mulching job at the Recycling Center. Zapalac said the Center has about 13,750 cubic yards of loose brush that needs to be processed into mulch. Garden-Ville quoted the County $19,950 for the job, which involves double grinding the material in a tub grinder. That’s a major savings over last year, when the County paid about $49,000 to a different company for the service.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, Commissioners approved the recycling center’s price sheet. The County already increased the price on the blue solid waste disposal bags from $2 to $3. The new price sheet reflects that change. Fees for brush drop off for a 10 to 16 foot trailer increased from $10 to $15. The price of mulch remained the same at $5 for a small scoop and $15 for a large scoop.
During the discussion, Weber asked Zapalac about items that the Recycling Center turns away. Zapalac said the items they most frequently turn away are tube televisions and old CRT computer displays. He said the recycling center has been unable to find an outlet for them. The Recycling Center does accept other electronics.
Berckenhoff asked Zapalac about offering a monthly or quarterly drop-off event for large items like sofas. Berckenhoff said his workers often find such items dumped on the sides or roads. He said people might bring them to the recycling center instead if such a service was available.
Zapalac said the County would have to pay for roll-off containers to accept large items like sofas. Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said the County could cover the cost by charging a fee for dumping such items. Commissioners did not take action on the proposal.