Local firm Elite Recycling proposes 30,000-sq.-ft. transfer station and a three-tier recycling plan for Campbell County

Dean Monroe, representing Elite Recycling, told the Campbell County Board of Supervisors that his company’s three-tier proposal would reuse and upgrade convenience sites, construct an approximately 30,000-square-foot transfer facility and operate a comprehensive recycling and disposal system for the county. Monroe said the plan was designed to maximize recycling, reduce hauling and lower the county’s landfill costs while keeping county oversight of solid-waste management.

Monroe said Elite would close two county convenience sites that are “not expandable” and relocate compactors to six of the remaining sites so commingled recyclables could be collected. He described a transfer facility with conveyors and ballistic separators to separate cardboard, steel and aluminum on site and send recyclables to a single-stream facility in Brookneal for further processing. Monroe said Elite has a $75,000 education grant and would contribute the majority of those funds to public recycling education.

On cost, Monroe said the company put a $2,000,000 cap on the building component of the transfer station (land excluded) based on estimates from a local contractor. He said the proposal’s operational assumptions would yield a $13.40-per-ton net savings to the county by cutting unnecessary hauling and using shared commercial throughput to offset costs. Monroe characterized a realistic recycling recovery for county-managed waste as 15–30% and said adding ballistic separators could raise recovery an additional 10–15 percentage points over current levels.

Board members pressed Monroe on operational details: who would pay to haul residual waste to an outside landfill, whether plastics could be economically recovered, staffing needs at convenience centers, and the basis for the $13.40-per-ton savings figure. Monroe said compactors already on site (at the county’s livestock facility) could be relocated at modest cost; that Brookneal’s single-stream facility has or will receive equipment to better separate PET and polypropylene plastics; and that labor and tipping-fee assumptions underlie the savings calculation. He acknowledged some estimates rely on assumptions about where residual waste would be disposed and on the county’s future decisions about siting.

Monroe emphasized that Elite could build the transfer facility on either company-owned property or county property and that the company would work with the county on staffing and public education. The presentation concluded with Monroe offering to provide more detail on specific line items if the board wanted to move forward in the procurement process.

The board took no action and reserved questions and ranking for later procurement steps.