The Orange County Recycling Cooperative is not just a collection activity which pays a recycler to take the items away and hopefully recycle, which is what most county based recycling programs throughout the state do. OCRC is a processing and sales program where the paper, cardboard, metal, electronics, appliances, and plastics are sorted, processed, and sold.
Since we process the items by appropriate sorting we are able to get the best prices that the area offers and this also gives us the assurance that the product will actually be recycled rather than passed on to the landfill. However, this all takes considerable staff time.
This question comes up: How can a group of private citizens do this when nearly all of the other recycling programs in Indiana are run and funded by local and state government?
1. We have the active and creative sales income from the resale store.
2. We have many volunteer hours spent in the store, on maintenance, and working with paper and plastics.
3. We have an invaluable partnership with the Orange County Solid Waste Board.
4. We have hundreds of community based shareholders who provide the physical plant and eq
uipment.
5. We have had a generous contractor/manager who ends up donating about one half of his time on the job.
If you are interested in learning more about Orange County Recycling Center contact us at orangecountyrecyclingcoop@gmail.com
The Orange County Recycling Co-op is a community owned cooperative that promotes the value of recycling and reusing goods by providing a recycling program and Re-sale store to the communities and businesses of Orange County. The mission of the Orange County Recycling Co-operative is to provide education and promote the value of recycling. Businesses or organizations that generate large amounts of recyclable materials (cardboard, plastic sheeting, metals, etc.) can arrange for those materials to picked up on a schedule by contacting our contractor.
In the early fall we advertise a special week during which county residents can drop off TVs and Computer monitors for free. This event will be advertise on social media and through the local paper.
We have an Indianapolis E-waste company called RecycleForce picks up our TVs for processing, to learn more check out recycleforce.org.
In 2018 there were over 500 tons of E-waste hauled off.
Old, broken, or inoperative electronics that are useless to current society.
Orange County Recycling Co-op
105 East Water Street
Paoli Indiana
Hours: Always Open
