HISTORY

SWEEP was established on October 19, 1987 as the result of NC Senate Bill #111 that recommended each county create the position of “Recycle Coordinator” and begin county-wide recycling. To satisfy this bill, Rutherford County chose to create SWEEP to research, recommend, and help facilitate both solid waste and recycling solutions to the County Commissioners.

It initially answered to The Planning Board which then formed a site-finding Subcommittee for permanent and functional trash/recycling centers. The Chairs of SWEEP: Gerard Davidson, Buster Huggins, Wilson Jumper, Luther Ledbetter, Forest Koone, Earnest Horton, Buster again and for over 10 years, then Richard Burke, and now David Cameron who has been on the Panel since 1988. SWEEP has members who are retired, are students, are local workers whose jobs concern recycling, and who are just plain passionate about living an earth-friendly life which always includes “reduce, reuse, & recycle.”

Solid Waste Directors for the same period have been: Buck Carr, Forest Koone, Earnest Horton, and currently Don Baynard.

The County’s first recycling program, in the mid 1980's, consisted of three modest plywood drop-off boxes in front of the County Offices and despite early skepticism the boxes were used by enough people to encourage a larger solution.

The first “Recycling Center”was at the Vocational Workshops, then directed by Judy Toney (now Personnel Director for The County). In addition to many job-creating tasks such as printing T-shirts, the workers handled all recycling operations and even paid people a little money for their recyclables.

It was soon apparent that the solid waste system for the county was wholly inadequate to maintain a cost-effective and pleasant solution that would serve the future needs of a growing population and the requirement (by both state law and environmental consciousness) to get better at recycling. The Convenience Center system was the result.

The first Convenience Center was Danieltown, simply because of the more dense population in that area, a protocol that continued to guide the design and placement of new centers. There are a total of 10 Centers, 5 of which have Swap Shops. We were the first Western North Carolina county to actualize a Convenience Center system and were heralded as an example for other counties in the region. Similarly, our Swap Shops are the first in Western North Carolina.

SWEEP is officially a part of the Solid Waste Department, so a good working relationship is essential. Department Heads, from Buck Carr in the 1980's, to the current Head Don Baynard have always maintained at least one position on SWEEP, now Steve Nanney who serves as both a Public Speaker and Litter Officer.