Guests and Wintergreen property owners often ask why there are no places within Wintergreen to recycle cardboard, paper, plastic, and metal. The short answer is that recycling has been tried more than once, but it proved to be impractical.
A bin just for paper to be recycled was on the mountain near the mail kiosk, but since November 2020 there have been only two trash compactors on the mountain. It is unlikely a recycling bin of any kind will be available within Wintergreen any time soon.
Biz trash illegal
Commercial operations are not to use the services on the mountain set up for residential trash. "It's illegal for businesses to dump their trash, garbage, and recyclables in any of the county's equipment on the mountain," says WPOA’s Mitchell Barker Read the the Nelson County Ordinance here.
Guest and property owners on the mountain have only two county-operated compactors nearby. Wintergreen property owners in Stoney Creek have long depended on the county’s transfer station near the Rockfish Valley Community Center for garbage and recycling and those on the mountain also use those facilities.
Every locality struggles with the economics and logistics of recycling. Nelson County is no different. The county is part of the Region 2000 Services Authority which includes counties to the south and Lynchburg. Those living in the county use its network of manned transfer stations that have separate bins for garbage, cardboard, paper, metal, and plastic. (Nelson County says it found glass recycling to be unworkable.)
It is the county, not the property owners association, that is responsible for the garbage compactors on the mountain and makes the final decisions regarding recycling. Mitchell Barker, Wintergreen Property Owners Association's Director of Infrastructure & Roads, works with the county’s staff in managing the services.
"Household refuse, plastic, cardboard, and paper kept being mixed in the recycling bin that the county had on the mountain. When that happened, the entire contents of the bin had to be sent to the landfill. Cross-contaminated recyclables results in no recycling,” explains Barker. The mixture of household refuse in the containers also attracted bears. Despite signage and notices, the mixing of trash, plastic, paper, and cardboard continued.
About 10 miles from Wintergreen on the way to Waynesboro at 1865 Mt. Torrey Rd. (Route 664) is one of Augusta County’s solid waste and recycling intake centers. This location operates Monday through Saturday 7 am to 5:30 pm. It has recycling bins for mixed paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, and steel (bi-metal). More details here
Rather than continue to send recyclables to the landfill, Nelson County is focused on providing recycling options near the Rockfish Valley Community Center just off Route 151. Because this facility is staffed, the recycling bins do not get cross-contaminated.
Recycling still has big problems
Surprising to no one, much of the cardboard trash at Wintergreen comes Amazon.com and other online retailers. Amazon is part of a industry effort attempting to address the issue. See their website at How2Recycle.info.