During a brief ceremony Wednesday morning, city officials and members of the Randolph County Solid Waste Authority announced the grand opening of a new glass recycling dumpster, located on Jones Drive – across from the Phil Gainer Community Center.

“Glass recycling has definitely been something that citizens of Elkins have wanted and asked for,” said Jessica Sutton, Elkins city clerk, adding the two entities have been talking about adding the service for close to a year.

For a brief period of a time a glass recycling program was in place; however, Sutton said, “that had to stop.”

“So being able to bring this back again, I think, is a really positive thing and I think it’ll make a lot of people really happy,” she said.

The Inter-Mountain photo by Sarah Goodrich From left are Marley Hazen, Fourth Ward Elkins City Council member; Clark Martin, Randolph County Solid Waste Authority chair; Jessica Sutton, Elkins City clerk; Bob Pingley, city of Elkins operations manager; Robert Chenoweth, First Ward Elkins City Council member; and Jack Tribble with the Randolph County Solid Waste Authority announced early Wednesday morning that county and city residents now have a designated area to recycle glass.

Clark Martin, chair for Randolph County Solid Waste Authority said residents have been taking recyclables to a location in the Industrial Park in Elkins.

“The problem was trying to find someone who would take glass,” he explained. “And so what we had done was in our search we found a company just south of Pittsburgh, north of Morgantown, almost in the middle –Bradish is the name of the company who specializes in taking glass only, and that was part of the problem — trying to find somebody who would be willing to drive down here and take the supplies of glass that the county would have”

Martin said residents can still utilize the recycling center in the Industrial Park, however, glass items can be dropped of at the new glass only dumpsters.

Martin emphasized that the glass recycling dumpster can be utilized by both city and county residents.

“So whether you’re from Montrose or Monterville, you can bring your glass here,” he said.

The glass recycling dumpsters will be available 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and 9 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.

“There’s a little sign up here on the gate that has the hours and it also has a little message on there about if you come to the gate and the gate’s closed, please don’t leave your glass at the gate,” Sutton said.