About

The Rockcastle County Recycling Center was started in the spring of 2005 with nothing more than a request from a friend (Deb Bledsoe) who also happened to be the director (at the time) of ASPI (Appalachian Science in the Public Interest) and a donation of some plastic barrels from that same friend who delivered the barrels from Cincinnati to here.  We would fill them up, as word spread, with plastic bottles and paper and we would then load them up and take them to the Richmond Recycling Center. 

Sometime in 2006, we began taking the recyclables to the Laurel County Recycling Center.  All of this required large amounts of manual labor (utilizing mainly inmate labor) and lots of time.  We did not even have a building when we first started.  We were using one of the equipment bays that the Rockcastle Road Department had.  We continued doing things the hard way until July of 2008, which is when we got approved for a recycling grant from the state. 

Fall of 2008 is when we built the main (albeit small) recycling building addition, purchased our first forklift (paid for with state grant monies) , bought a large flatbed trailer to transport recyclables to London with (paid for by the Rockcastle County Detention Center), and joined with the City of London and Laurel County as a Regional Recycling Center. 

In June of 2009 we received our first three recycling drop-off trailers for outlying communities that were also purchased with state recycling grant monies. In the spring of 2010 we purchased two more recycling drop-off trailers with state grant monies.  We also purchased steel for bins to store and transport recyclables in, with state grant monies in 2010. 

In 2011 we purchased our first compactor and two roll-off boxes.  In 2012 we purchased our second compactor and two more roll-off boxes and one more recycling trailer. In 2014 we were to the point that we could purchase  a tag-a-long trailer and build our own bins for it thanks to the work of Mr. Marshall Bullock and we did the same thing for another trailer in 2015.  In 2017,  we received grant monies from the state to purchase a new forklift with and to buy steel with for more bins for the storage and transportation of recyclables.

Now, here we are in 2023 and still going strong! We have seven (7) trailer dropoff locations and continue to accept items at our main building. Adding to that, we continue to apply for grants to allow us to complete road cleanup, Household Hazardous Waste, Free Trash Day, and Tire Takeback Day events.