The North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance have created a website about the upcoming landfill bans (http://p2pays.org/BannedMaterials). The site contains a wealth of information specifically about plastic bottles, since that ban will more likely affect North Carolinians in their day-to-day lives. The site provides citizens and businesses with information on how, where and why to recycle plastic bottles, as well as information about how to recycle wooden pallets and motor oil filters.

“Catawba County citizens have for years done a fabulous job with recycling, as proven by the fact that we rank second among the 100 counties in North Carolina in recycling” said Amanda Kain, Catawba County’s Recycling Coordinator. “The County currently has recycling programs in place for wood pallets and plastic bottles and the County also recently began accepting used oil filters for recycling at most Convenience Centers.”

The County Convenience Centers that accept used oil filters are located on Rocky Ford Road off Highway 10 west of Newton (across from the Blackburn Landfill); on Lookout Dam Road in the Oxford Community; at the now closed Newton Landfill on Bethany Church Road; and in the Cooksville Community on Rhoney Farm Road. Oil filters will not be accepted at the Sherrills Ford Convenience Center, as the terms of a new lease agreement with Duke Energy for the use of that property prohibits the acceptance or storage of hazardous materials, including petroleum products.

"Every year, North Carolinians recycle more than 480 million plastic bottles,” Kain added. “While that sounds like a large number, compare that to the more than 2.4 billion plastic bottles North Carolinians throw away each year. All those discarded plastic bottles could line the Blue Ridge Parkway 642 times or the Outer Banks 28 times.”

North Carolina General Statute §130A-309.10(f) lists the items currently banned from North Carolina landfills:

Aluminum cans

Lead-acid batteries
Antifreeze

Motor oil
Appliances

Oyster shells
Beverage containers from ABC permitted facilities

Scrap tires
Yard waste

“The list of items banned from North Carolina landfills continues to grow,” said Kelley Dennings, education and outreach coordinator for the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. “Not only will these three items be added to the list in October, in January 2011, televisions and computer equipment will also be added to the list in order to combat the increase of electronic waste in our landfills.”

For more information on banned items, please contact the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance at (919) 715-6500 or (800) 763-0136. You may also visit the Web site at www.p2pays.org. For more information on recycling in Catawba County, you may call Amanda Kain, Recycling Coordinator, at (828) 465-8217 or visit www.catawbacountync.gov/depts/u&e/solwasmg.asp