New solid waste facility open for business

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - A few months ago, the Wildcat Creek Solid Waste District closed its doors. On Monday, the new facility opened its doors, and its storage space, to the Tippecanoe County community.

The Tippecanoe County Solid Waste Management is located at 2770 North 9th Street in Lafayette, about 20 yards west of the previous location.  A location that site manager Fredrick Holman said is not only bigger, but more convenient.

"If they want to dispose of a bag of trash, that's something they can do here," said Holman. "Bring the trash and bring the household chemicals and bring recycling all in one trip, so it makes it a lot easier for residents to do that."

The new site accepts hazardous waste materials and household chemicals like oil-based paints, house cleaners and car batteries. The new location will not accept medications or other bio-medical materials.

Holman said the new facility will also only be receiving materials and will not distribute items back out to the public.
    
"I know the old facility used to give out paint, we won't be giving out anything at all," said Holman. "We will only accept it, but we won't be storing it, mixing paint and giving it back out into the community."

The hours of operations also differ from the previous location. The facility is now open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, compared to one day a week at the old site.

Although the new waste facility just opened on Monday, Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh said he's already had a chance to visit the site and encourages those in the community to do the same.

"The location is ideal, the hours are obviously much better than we've had in the past and the facility itself is just really nice," said Murtaugh. "So, I encourage everybody to go out there and take advantage of the service and drop off their household hazardous waste and take a look at it."

The cost of the new facility is $194,000. The Wildcat Creek budget was $260,000, but that cost was shared with Clinton County. Murtaugh said this move should eventually save tax-payers money.