From bears to better service: Rappahannock’s trash overhaul yields big savings

Managing trash in a rural setting like Rappahannock County can be a challenge. Locals who use the Flatwood Refuse and Recycling Center — better known as “the dump” — may remember an open pit of rubbish surrounded by barbed wire and covered with an often-malfunctioning mechanical roof.   

“The smell was intense,” says Flatwood’s manager Willie Shanks. “There were strings of garbage everywhere.”

That was back in 2000 when Flatwood opened and years thereafter. Fast forward from 2018 — the arrival of County Administrator Garrey Curry, whose background in landfill design, provided an opportunity to transform all things trash. Today’s Flatwood features dual compactors and an array of large recycling bins, the ultimate effects of which are saving county taxpayers more than $360,000 a year.       

Getting there took time.

Changes in consumer habits as well as population growth in neighboring counties impacted heavily on the county’s refuse efforts — from the “Amazon” effect of endless boxes and packing materials, to pressure from fast-growing nearby communities eager to outsource their own trash piles. 

But increased volumes at Flatwood and its “sister” refuse center in Amissville were initially dwarfed by contractual problems with the county’s longstanding removal service. Flatwood relied on Culpeper-based Updike Industries to haul its rubbish away on a weekly basis. 

Over time, however, a lack of routine maintenance plagued regular pick-ups and eventually saw one of Updike’s trucks literally snap in half on the job. By early 2020, the company stopped coming altogether, causing a trash situation that, according to Shanks, became “uncivil.”   

Enter Garrey Curry

“It was obvious to me that we needed to make changes,” says Curry.  A civil environmental engineer by background with expertise not only in landfill design but also groundwater contamination, Curry had advised municipalities for decades prior to taking the Rappahannock role in 2018.      

The material changes started in March 2020 when Rappahannock struck an agreement with Page County that promised dramatic improvements for both Flatwood and Amissville. Curry drew up the new footprint for Flatwood, electrical systems were upgraded as needed to accommodate a new hydraulic system and, by June, the dump’s first compactor was on site and operational. 

“Before,” recalls Shanks, “it was a mess. Now the compacted trash is collected every day by Page County.”

The new arrangement included a robust recycling initiative based on Page County’s award-winning program – considered by the State of Virginia a blueprint for other counties.   

“With our past vendor there were many questions about how our recyclables were handled,” says Curry. “Different recyclable materials were all placed in the same bin.”  

Previously, Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) – de facto middlemen that separate, sort and sell recyclables to specialty facilities – tended to dominate the recycling landscape. Page County cut them out of the equation and bought a baler, which compresses materials such as plastic and cardboard into dense bundles for transport.

“The Page County methodology relies on source separation, so we have separate containers for various different types of recyclable material,” Curry says. “Once a citizen places the proper recyclable material in the proper bin, it is hauled to Page County.” 

The changes have, at minimum, addressed the interests of local environmentalists and made the going-to-the-dump experience, well, more pleasant. Moreover, they’ve proved extremely cost-effective, reducing the county’s annual management and haulage costs from $490,488 to $299,924. 

Changes to the way large metals are recycled – items such as grills and refrigerators that Rappahannock previously paid to have removed – have also had a positive financial impact. An arrangement with Wise Recycling in Culpeper, which pays (rather than charges) commodity market rates by weight, generated $12,000 in revenue for the county last year.

With Flatwood transformed from smelly eyesore to veritable community center – the dump is now more destination than dreaded chore, as well as a place you’re sure to run into someone you know – Rappahannock’s Board of Supervisors turned its attention to limiting the use of Rappahannock’s dumps to county residents and property owners. 

Sticker program

Beginning in 2024, Culpeper County residents, who previously brought their household waste to Amissville, were required to pay an annual fee (verified by a sticker on their windshield) to continue doing so. Waste volume, as a result, is down between 15% to 17%. 

Surja Tamang, Amissville’s manager, has been running the site for eight years. A native of Nepal, Tamang has lived in the county for just over 20 years. “The changes have been good for us,” he says. “I’m very strict about enforcing the need for the non-resident sticker. I turn people away who don’t have it.”   

Though the sticker program was only in effect for six months during fiscal year 2024, it drew in $30,576 in revenue. To date, according to Curry, 167 decals have been issued for fiscal year 2025, which began July 1. At an annual rate of $348 each, that’s an extra $58,116 in revenue. Combined with an estimated $22,500 in cost savings from the reduction in waste volume, the total benefit (to date) to Rappahannock County taxpayers is just over $80,000.

“The theory not to grow drove the decision to limit waste being taken from neighboring communities,” says Curry. “Regional partnerships can work – but they need to be managed.”      

Curry’s background in groundwater contamination has also been a plus. Though the landfill at Amissville has been closed and capped for more than a decade, the county was still paying nearly $100,000 a year to haul away wastewater to avoid any potential contamination from residual chemicals that could leach into the ground. By replacing the open pond with two small buried tanks – the county obtained a permit amendment to do so – Rappahannock reduced removal costs to $20,000 which, after the changeover cost of $88,000 has been written down, represents a real savings of $80,000 per year.

A final positive effect of all the changes is better data about Amissville and Flatwood. Recent tracking shows waste volumes (some 280-370 tons of waste each month for the two centers combined) have been reduced and stabilized.   

“For a rural county, the combined annual savings of over $360,000 represents significant value for taxpayers,” says Curry. “When put in the context of the $192,000 of revenue generated from one penny of real estate tax, it adds up to nearly two pennies of savings on the county’s real estate tax rate. 

“This sort of savings in Rappahannock County goes a lot farther than in Fairfax County.”

HISTORY

The way it was … before Flatwood: Even bears got in the trash

Pre Flatwood, trash collection in Rappahannock County was like the wild west. Dumpster sites (three-four yard “green boxes”) dotted the county – from Chester Gap (near the fire department) and Huntly (near where the old course of State Road 522 intersects with the new) to Amissville (near what is now Jptsels Lane, just off Viewtown Road) and the old Scrabble School.

Serviced by Community Trash (now Updike’s), which hauled waste to the privately owned Clifton Clark landfill near Woodville, each site brought its own challenges.

Previous county administrator John McCarthy recalls what it was like before Flatwood opened in 2000: “The dumpster sites near neighboring counties had a real problem with those counties’ residents using them, in addition to the fact that untended sites inevitably were vectors for illegal dumping … and hard to keep tidy and police from a management point of view.”

Wildlife added another layer of excitement. “When we installed the in-ground tanks we had not thought of how to get bears out, but quickly learned – we kept 2x6s of some length handy to lean in for them to walk up on,” says McCarthy, now with Piedmont Environmental Council. “We had similar problems in years before when people went up to a green three-yard box and slipped the door aside to find a bear or opossum or raccoon (or all three) grazing contentedly.”

The scene was “chaotic,” says Flatwood manager Willie Shanks. “You had to really be careful tossing bags, in that you didn’t hurt someone. Informal ‘dumpster diving’ was common. It was a free for all; no one was managing the dumpsters.”

The transition to today’s managed system came gradually. “Every time a dumpster site was proposed to be closed, there were equal parts outrage (those who lived within using distance) and relief (those who lived near), with the opinions of the former generally being louder than the latter,” says McCarthy.

The changes weren’t just about convenience, he notes. “Several horror stories of things being dumped in other counties’ untended collection sites led to broader acceptance that fenced, managed, collection sites were the only way to ensure our liabilities were minimized and the environment protected.”

One particularly poignant note from this history involves the old Scrabble School site, of which McCarthy expressed lasting regret. “I retain a lasting bit of shame for having participated in the use of the Scrabble School site for the dumpsters, and facilitated the replacement of green boxes with the in-ground tanks.

“I’m glad my tenure lasted long enough to right that particularly disrespectful wrong.”

— By Meredith Ogilvie-Thompson

FROM GROCERY BAGS TO BENCHES

Lions Club plastic recycling program 

Benches made from clear plastic bags may have started as a small novelty program for the local Rappahannock Lions Club, but it has since grown into a recycling success story. With collection bins at both Flatwood and Amissville, the Lions Rappahannock chapter has helped turn more than 18,500 pounds of plastic into 29 benches around the county.

“The citizens of Rappahannock have been very responsible in what they put in,” says Lions Club Secretary Jim Manwaring. “Fauquier landfill, which collects the plastic for baling and shipping to Trex [the company making the benches], even complimented us on the quality of the plastic we provide.”