An unidentified speaker at Franklin County's residential waste and recycling center said the county has installed new mixed-paper compactors to increase how much paper and cardboard the site can accept and to reduce the number of trips needed to transport material offsite.

The equipment was introduced because, the speaker said, paper and cardboard are the most commonly recycled items in Franklin County. The compactors pack mixed paper into large blue dumpsters and, according to the speaker, send those loads to a recycler located in the area.

The speaker said the machines accept the same materials as the previous collection bins but 'really maximize how much we can fit in each load.' He explained that the compactors use a photocell sensor that turns the compactor on when cardboard reaches a certain level, which then compresses the material into the dumpsters.

'It's really a win win,' the unidentified speaker said, summarizing the county's rationale for the upgrade.

County staff did not record any formal vote or motion on the installation in the provided excerpt of the meeting. The change is described as an operational improvement intended to reduce transport costs and to support a local recycling market in South Carolina. No financial details, vendor names, or implementation timeline were given in the available transcript.

Next steps were not specified in the transcript; the speaker described the equipment's operation and intended benefits but did not state a schedule for additional rollouts or performance metrics.