New Recycling Station To Open In Bishopville

SNOW HILL – A Bishopville site meant to become a trash transfer and recycling station will be reduced to recycling only.

The new recycling facility will be ready for use next week, beginning on Tuesday, July 14. The site will accept paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and aluminum cans.

The Worcester County solid waste operation anticipates large revenue losses from Ocean City’s recent decision to contract with an out-of-state trash hauler to dispose of its 32,000 tons of trash per year. The resort, rather than use the county landfill, will pay lower fees to the contractor than the county landfill tipping fees.

County solid waste operations received about a third of its annual revenue through Ocean City trash. One result of that revenue loss is the elimination of the Bishopville trash transfer station.

Bishopville residents will now be able to drop their recycling off near the intersection of Bishopville Road and Route 113. The site will only take recycling, not trash.

The Bishopville Recycling Center at Bishopville Park was closed down because trash was being deposited on site and in the recycling cans, mostly, county staffers say, by Delaware residents from just over the state line.

“With the change of location, that should eliminate some of the problem,” said County Commissioner Linda Busick.

The new recycling center will host four to five recycling containers. Solid waste staff will modify the openings, making them narrower, to prevent trash bags from being deposited inside recycling cans.

Trash could still be left next to the cans, Tustin acknowledged.

The site will be unmanned, but monitored by county staff for problems. The county cannot afford to fence or man the recycling site, as was planned when the transfer station project was designed.