Environmental Education Programs

Keep Wise County Beautiful

EDUCATION

Keep Wise County Beautiful believes that education plays an extremely important role in reducing the amount of litter in our communities and in teaching our citizens the importance of recycling.

We have developed several environmental education programs for our citizens and school children. The main one is our school education committee. This education sub-committee is composed of at least one teacher per school within Wise County and the City of Norton. With their assistance, we hold various litter prevention and recycling events inside the school such as The Can Kruncher Game, an Aluminum Can Recycling contest, a Trash to Treasures contest, a Poster Contest, and a Plastic Bag Recycling contest. We develop these and other events according to current SOLs.

WISE COUNTY CONVENIENCE/RECYCLING CENTERS

The Wise County recycling program currently accepts the following materials for recycling: Aluminum, Metal, Paper, Cardboard, Rubber Tires*, and Electronics. Recyclables are accepted by the county at each of the manned county convenience centers. There are recycling stations set up at each one. Some may accept different types of recyclables than others. You may not realize it, but there are different types of most of these recyclables. The list below will explain what Wise County accepts for recycling.

Paper – Only Magazines, Newspapers and Paperboard (ex. Shoeboxes and cereal boxes). No office paper or other types of paper other than what is listed is accepted at this time. Shoe Boxes & cereal boxes) are accepted at this time. They are working to change this so that they can accept more types of paper and we will update this website and inform the public if and when that happens.

Cardboard – All corrugated (thick) cardboard. *The recycling containers for cardboard are designed so that cardboard boxes must be flattened out first in order to go in the recycling containers.

Aluminum – All aluminum cans and aluminum metal pieces.

Metal – White goods, such as stoves, refrigerators, freezers, etc. or any other metal pieces.

Electronics (E-Waste) – Most electronic goods such as computers, radios, cameras, printers, copiers, fax machines, and telephones. Wise County will accept flat-screen televisions at the e-waste recycling station but all other types of televisions should be disposed of with the regular trash at the convenience centers.

Rubber Tires*– All passenger car & light truck tires. This is the only recycled item that Wise County has their citizens and businesses pay a separate fee to dispose of. This is due to the high cost of disposal. Currently the fee is $1.00 for each passenger tire brought to a convenience center and $5 for each commercial truck tire.

Recycling is very easy to do. All you have to do is follow these simple steps:

  1. Fix up a separate container in your house to hold each different kind of recyclable material you normally have in your household. These containers can be as simple as bags, boxes, or trash cans.
  1. When you go to throw away something in your house, separate out the different recyclables and put them in their designated containers.
  1. When your containers get full, take them to one of our convenience centers and deposit them into the recycling stations.

County Convenience Center Recycling Locations & Contact Information.

Please remember that all e-waste acceptable for recycling needs to be dropped off at the Josephine convenience center. It is the only one set up to accept e-waste at this time.

CONVENIENCE CENTERS

Every manned county convenience center has a recycling station for you to drop off your recyclables. The hours of operation for the convenience centers are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Sunday.

Town and City Recycling Stations

There are recycling stations set up in most of our towns and the City of Norton. Below is a list of their locations and what each recycling station will accept. These recycling stations are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

505 E. 5th Street South (Town Hall)
Accepts Paper only

E. 19th Street N. (Black Diamond #44 behind store)
Accepts Paper & Plastic Bottles

Wood Ave. West (Frog Level Park)
Accepts Paper & Plastic Bottles

Town Hall
Accepts Plastic Bottles & Aluminum Cans

PSA Building (Old Depot)
Accepts Plastic Bottles & Aluminum Cans

Norton Community Center
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, Aluminum Cans, & Cardboard

Kentucky Avenue (Greene’s Car Wash)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

East Park Avenue (Huff’s Auto)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, Aluminum Cans, & Cardboard

Foodland (Parking Lot)
Paper Only

Town Shop
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

206 East Main St. (Behind Courthouse)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, Aluminum Cans, & Cardboard

L.F. Addington Middle School (Beside Loading Dock)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

Woodland Drive S.W. (Near Food City)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

Church Street N.W. (Behind Adam’s Friendly Tire)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

Wise Shopping Plaza (Near Wendy’s Restaurant)
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

Corner of Lake Sreet & Virginia Avenue
Accepts Paper, Plastic Bottles, & Aluminum Cans

LITTER INDEX

One of the requirements for our organization to remain an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful is for us to perform an annual litter index. This is a survey of the trash and roadside litter that is found throughout the county.

Every year around March, volunteers meet and, as a group, travel certain pre-designated roads throughout the county surveying the litter they observe. The scoring system ranks the litter on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being the cleanest and 4 being the dirtiest. The roads surveyed are an equal representation of the business districts in our towns, our school properties, and our rural roads. We then group the roads into seven separate categories named after the six towns and the City of Norton which are all located in Wise County.

All told, a total of 83 road sections are surveyed.

Keep Wise County Beautiful

Wise County Litter Index

TOWN200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021
Appalachia Area2.52.222.592.213.152.122.392.112.352.172.082.472.162.462.032.241.972.342.00**
Big Stone Gap Area1.802.041.961.772.421.531.771.331.651.441.811.641.551.701.621.762.012.101.82**
Coeburn Area2.032.251.991.982.412.072.112.132.232.172.352.202.142.172.142.121.902.092.07**
Norton Area2.132.312.291.813.071.882.221.851.941.841.941.842.062.202.051.652.212.292.06**
Pound Area1.802.192.131.702.271.832.061.862.021.321.792.141.912.212.281.912.242.181.77**
St. Paul Area1.822.041.961.772.111.851.711.952.042.041.671.781.961.601.641.551.851.571.77**
Wise Area1.911.912.011.622.071.521.651.531.751.371.631.501.941.471.521.631.331.091.51**
Cumulative Total2.002.142.131.842.501.831.991.822.001.761.901.941.961.971.901.841.931.951.86**