A joint effort between employees at the Transfer Station, local businesses and citizens has set in motion a reduction in the amount of trash Lewis County taxpayers pay to have removed each week.

Recycling of cardboard, paper, plastics and metals has increased county-wide, resulting in a savings of at least $4,000 in May.

For comparison, for May 2019 Lewis County paid approximately $35,000 to have household waste transported to the Decatur County landfill.

In May 2020, even with fees nearly doubled for transportation of household trash to Lewisburg, Lewis County’s invoice for hauling plus tipping fee was $31,000.

An increase in the recycling among residents and businesses has been noted. Friday of last week, a Transfer Station crew sorted an entire City Garbage Truck load of trash, by hand, to remove the cardboard.

On average two months ago, Lewis County generated five to six trailer loads of trash costing $56.19 per ton. The minimum weight charged per truck is for 17 tons, or $955.23 per load, per day. Loads may contain as much as 24 tons, costing $1,348.56 per day.

For the past two weeks, Lewis County’s trash has been contained to five trailer loads. While the reduction is not consistent enough to affect the budget, Mayor Jonah Keltner commented this week, the recycling efforts have the potential to impact the Solid Waste Department positively.

Keep up the work to reduce and recycle, Lewis County!