Recycling program overhauled in Lumpkin

Changes to Lumpkin County’s recycling program brought six new larger bins—three at the Torrington/Highway 9 intersection and three for the Red Oak Flats Recycling Center.
Earlier this year the Board of Commissioners voted to withdraw from NGRMA (North Georgia Resource Management Authority) and contracted with Hall County to take Lumpkin’s recycling material.
“Our recycling program is subsidized by the general fund, and by partnering with Hall County we can generate more revenue and reduce the burden on the taxpayer” said BOC Chairman Chris Dockery.
Lumpkin has been a part of NGRMA since its formation in the early 2000s. It assisted the county in getting grants for recycling bins, provided a truck for use with the bins to transfer the recyclable material to the Recycling Center on Red Oak Flats Road and picked up the processed material for sale. The county received a portion of the revenue from the sale of its materials.
Several northeast Georgia counties originally made up the Authority, but with Lumpkin’s withdrawal only Banks and Union counties remain.
The truck has been returned to NGRMA. The BOC will vote in October whether or not to give the old bins to Union County for a token cost of $1.
Lumpkin purchased the six new bins at a cost of $42,312.  That cost, however, will be paid off in two years by money saved, County Manager Stan Kelley said. “We will no longer be paying the Authority $22,000 in annual membership dues.”
There was no need to purchase a truck. One already in the county fleet is being used to haul the material to Hall County.
“While we still will not be in the black in recycling we are not losing as much as we did with NGRMA,” said Kelley.
The same items that were recycled before are still the only ones that can be put into the new bins—corrugated cardboard, office paper and paperboard, plastic jugs #1 and #2 with lids removed, tin and aluminum cans.
These materials can still be dropped off at the Red Oak Flats Recycling Center.
All other household trash must be taken to the Transfer Station on Barlow Road.