Commissioners heard from Ben Wall of Atlantic Waste Services and Sam Sullivan of All Green Services Tuesday morning during the county commission meeting. The duo offered commentary on expanding the transfer station, cost savings, and safety improvements in addition to consolidation of solid waste sites, additional security measures, and privatized services.
Transfer Station
Sullivan and Wall discussed the transfer station in Statesboro, which was created in 1999 and has never been expanded. Sullivan said because of the volume, All Green has had to add trailers ($120,000 each) to hold the increase in volume, which has increased the tipping fees.
Sullivan stated there is a ‘dormant recycling area’ at the transfer station that is owned by the county. Public Works Director Dink Butler said the county stopped recycling before COVID and while it’s a ‘feel good’ program, very few people participate and the county does not anticipate returning to the recycling business any time soon. Sullivan said that taking out the walls at the dormant recycling center would immediately double the size of the capacity in the transfer station. The expansion, Wall said, would cost around $300,000 and Butler said the city has agreed to accept the costs for those renovations.
Wall said there is a safety issue at the transfer station and that there is a financial benefit because waste streams can be sorted out – household waste and construction waste. Wall’s Atlantic Waste Services has a landfill in Jenkins which could take the construction waste at a lower cost. According to Sullivan, 78,340 total tons trending in 2025 and the approximate estimate of 25% volume being construction waste (20,000 tons), the county could send the waste to Jenkins at a savings of $7.00 per ton or $140,000 annually in disposal and transportation costs. Wall said it would pay for itself in two years if they had the $300,000 in renovations to the transfer station.
Collections
Bulloch County currently has 21 solid waste collection centers.
Sullivan talked about how Toombs, Liberty and Laurens counties have manned trash sites, but are only open certain days and certain hours. Wall suggested that the county should look at reducing the number of trash sites from 21 to 10.
Curbside Services as a Possible Solution
Sullivan said there are ‘20,592 residents’ in unincorporated Bulloch County and AWS already services 42% of them with 8,500 customers. “We’re not saying that is what you should do, but it is a solution,” Sullivan said.
He also said even if the county was 100% curbside, some convenience centers would still be necessary.
Sullivan said it is not the intention of AllGreen/Atlantic Waste Services to tell the county what to do, but they want to know what direction the county would like to go. Wall said they would be interested in forming a committee to meet with commissioners to look at actual numbers.
Dink Butler said the city and county would have to examine service delivery agreements before certain things are outsourced.
Commissioner Anthony Simmons said he heard AllGreen and AWS speak at the ACCG Conference earlier in the year and he wanted them to address commissioners and that’s how the presentation came about.
