By Douglas Boultinghouse
  RISON - Since the adoption of the county wide recycling program early this year, the Cleveland County transfer station at Rison has been looking for new ways to make use of the program.
  According to Karen Crowder, the station manager, there are six to seven businesses participating in the program faithfully. On top of what those businesses contribute, she said every load that comes through the station contains something that can be recycled.
  Some income has been made from recycling, such as from a load of cardboard, and over time, more revenue is expected to come in.
  Cleveland County Judge Gary Spears said at least $1,800 has been brought in from the program and at least $2,700 has been saved on disposal costs because of recycling.
  For each open-top container of regular landfill, the cost is around $300. For example, Spears said 42,000 lbs. of cardboard would fill up about four containers, saving the county about $1,200 in disposal costs. The same process goes for newsprint and office paper.
  “Anything that we can take out of the landfill is a savings for everyone,” Spears said.
  One new addition, in response to the overflowing amounts of newsprint and office paper being collected at Rison, Crowder said the county is forming a partnership with a station in Louisiana to bring in a secondary recycling bin. The new bin will be swapped with the current bin when it becomes full.
  But a new secondary collection bin at the transfer station isn’t the only addition to the program.
  The county has bought a new Alley Cat recycling trailer, which is essentiually a set of mobile recycling bins.
  The Alley Cat trailer is smaller than the large steel collection bins, and consists of two bins for cardboard, as well as bins for newsprint and office paper.
  Crowder said she is in negotiation with Judge Spears to bring the Alley Cat trailer to the schools throughout the county and to set up a booth at the upcoming county fair in an effort to bring recycling to the people of Cleveland County.
  “As people become aware of what we do, the interest and progress of the program increases,” Crowder said.
  Currently the majority of the program’s users are the elderly, Crowder said. She said she believes the reasoning behind this is that the older generation realizes everything has value, and that they come from a time when nothing was to be wasted.
  “If we can get the schools involved, I hope we can reach the parents through the interest of the kids and encourage them to recycle,” Crowder said.
  In further attempts to gain the attention of the public, the transfer station has set up a web site (www.clevelandcountyrecycles.googlepages.com) with information about the station and the recycling program, contact information and facts about recycling such as “For every one ton of paper that is recycled, 17 trees are saved.”
  “It’s a good program and on top of the savings, it’s allowing us to be environmentally friendly,” Spears said.