Ozark County Recycling Center receives grant funds, reminds residents of new hours

The Ozark County Recycling Center on County Road 502 in Gainesville has received nearly $15,000 in grant funds from the South Central Solid Waste Management District. 

“We’re pretty proud of our recycling center, because we all saw what the county looked like without it,” Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner said during Monday’s weekly commission meeting. “Some of these county roads looked like a garbage dump. People would just drive down them and throw stuff out. They’d throw out stoves, refrigerators, tires, all sorts of stuff.”

Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins said the grant funds will be put toward salaries and basic costs for six months of operation of the facility. 

Collins also reminds residents that the recycling center is now closed Fridays through Sundays. It’s open from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and is closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Collins says the change in hours aligns the recycling center’s schedule with the county’s road and bridge crews. Because the recycling center and the county’s equipment shed are housed within the same fenced area, Collins said, it cuts down on concerns about people being near the equipment shed when employees are not on site. Collins also believes it will cut down on residents dropping off items that the center does not accept, such as “slick paper” and plastics other than those marked #1 and #2.

Turner said a new recyclables buyer has been found who is paying more for the county’s cardboard and other recycled items.  He said at one time the OCRC was selling cardboard for about $200 per ton, but that price bottomed out in 2019 and 2020, when the county was only able to sell cardboard for $30 per ton. Turner said he had located a new buyer who has been paying $120 to $130 a bale now. 

“I just started cold calling around to see who would be able to buy it and for what price, and we found a man who said he’d buy it for more,” Turner said. “He came down, and we’ve been doing business ever since.”

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423