Trash dumping forces change at recycling site

After repeatedly finding junk that had been dumped, such as old mattresses and vehicle bumpers, the county is shutting down a recycling site.

Starting Friday, residents no longer can recycle plastic, glass, and aluminum and steel cans at the recycling site at Bargersville Senior Center. Paper and cardboard will continue to be accepted.

The county’s recycling district office decided to close the site to all materials except paper and cardboard after several months of dealing with illegal dumping of trash.

“People were using it more like a trash site than a recycling site,” said Jessie Biggerman, Johnson County recycling district director.

The recycling district is responsible for all recycling sites, meaning it must haul away big pieces of trash outside the recycling bins.

And if garbage and trash were mixed in with proper recycling material in a bin, the recycling company ultimately just threw away the entire contents, putting into a landfill what residents had intended to be recycled, she said.

The recycling site at the senior center off Old South Street had been moved there from a site on South Baldwin Street. At the previous location, no dumping problems had existed, she said.

“We’ve never closed down a site like this before,” Biggerman said. “It’s now in a dark and closed off area, so it’s easy for people to just kind of dump things.”

Biggerman said she hopes to find a new, better-lit location for people to recycle plastics and metals.

In the meantime, residents can use any other recycling district location. Large pieces of trash can be taken to the county’s transfer station on Industrial Drive in Franklin, but fees will be charged.

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The recycling site at the Bargersville Senior Center, 14 W. Old South St., will no longer accept plastic, glass, aluminum or steel cans as of Friday.

Cardboard and paper recycling will still be available.

Residents using that site are encouraged to take household recyclables, such as plastic food and beverage containers, aluminum and steel food and beverage cans, and glass food and beverage containers, to other nearby locations, such as: 

  • Former Morning Star Baptist Church, 3039 W. County Road 300S, Trafalgar
  • Emmanuel Church of Greenwood, 1640 Stones Crossing Road, Greenwood.

Contact the district office at 738-2546 with questions or visit recyclejohnsoncounty.com for alternate recycling locations.

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