Have you visited Niagara Falls lately? A trip to the Dillon County Recycling Center on a rainy day produces nearly the same effect.
The Herald stopped by the recycling center on Friday to find a shocking and disturbing scene. Rain rushed through the holes in the roof like a waterfall in some areas, and rain water trickled down electric lights and wires and appeared to be very close to the machinery used in facility, which put work on that machinery to a halt due to safety reasons. Pieces of the roof fell in striking the floor. This is not the condition that our recycling center—or any county building for that matter—should be in. Clearly, this did not happen overnight.
Now the county will be quick to tell you that they have been discussing the matter at budget workshops. They are even talking about erecting a building for the recycling center at the landfill on Highway 57 South in Dillon. However, this is not the correct course of action.
If citizens cannot easily access the recycling center in a central location in town, they will not or will stop using it, and the county will have effectively killed the program. The recycling center needs to be as visible and as easy to access as the new animal shelter, the detention center, the Sheriff’s Office, the City-County complex or any other county office that citizens use or where they need to obtain service. Hiding the recycling center away will accomplish nothing but increasing litter and trash along our roads, in our woods, etc.
The county needs to get on board with recycling, and the council should provide the proper support needed to make it an accessible and convenient program for the citizens.
While recycling is voluntary now, there will likely be some time in the future when recycling will be mandatory for all U.S. citizens.
Dillon County needs to be supporting recycling now so that citizens can get into the habit of recycling before they have no other choice. Hiding the facility away will not accomplish that nor will having a building that citizens are afraid to enter. Citizens should contact their councilman to let them know that these two options are not acceptable.
Recycling is a vital, important and needed  service that must be easily available to our citizens, and it is time that the council treat it as such. Money is tight, but funding options should be explored immediately as this situation cannot wait long.
Council’s decision about what to do with the recycling center will determine the future of the program and the future of recycling in our county. A good decision will move the program forward. A poor decision will kill the program and hold the county back. Let’s hope the council makes the best choice. Let them know how you feel about this important matter.