Waste Management pushing recycling aspect

Billboards like this one on West Floyd Baker Boulevard, touting Waste Management Inc.'s "3Cycle" approach to recycling and reusing waste products, are starting to appear around Cherokee County as part of the company's campaign to generate support for a $150 million landfill and recycling operation near McKown's Mountain. Motorists entering Cherokee County from either side on Interstate 85, or traveling through Gaffney on West Floyd Baker Boulevard, can already see the beginnings of Waste Management Inc.'s very public campaign to stress that its plans for McKown's Mountain are not ordinary.

Just two years ago Waste Management's plans for a landfill in the Enoree area of Spartanburg County fell apart. The company now is proposing to build a facility in Cherokee County near McKown's Mountain with a new approach and mindset — one with recycling products and reusing waste as a core concept.

Billboards touting the Texas-based company's 3Cycle program started appearing along roadways in the past week as part of the company's ongoing efforts to generate support for the estimated $150 million project. Rick Silver, a spokesman for Waste Management, says the company's plans for McKown's Mountain would raise the bar for how companies deal with waste in the future. A focus on recycling was not part of Waste Management's past effort to open a new facility in Spartanburg, Silver said.

If Waste Management is able to secure county and state approval, it plans to open a state-of-the-art recycling center and landfill on a 1,550- acre parcel near McKown's Mountain. Its plans call for a major sorting operation to remove recyclable material from the waste stream and a gas to energy operation to convert methane gas from the decomposition of solid waste into electricity.

The company also is pledging to maintain a large portion of the property as a natural area that also would serve as a buffer between the landfill and recycling operations and area residents.