Mr. Odiorne, has managed the recycling center in Bertram for the past 14 or 15 years. But he insist that he was not the first one that started the recycling center. He had just spoken his idea, aloud that the vacant grain silo would make a good structure for a recycling plant. It was Kit Odem and Rachel McAllester who arranged for a door to be cut into the empty silo. When the recycling center first started it was Austin Ecology Action that would pick up all the recycled
materials, and haul it to a larger facility for processing. Then Glass Catcher took over hauling the material charging the City of Bertram $100 per month. Raising their prices to $200 per month and then to $400 per month to haul the material. When they reached the $400 per month raise, the City Council said no.
Ken, arranged a few volunteers, along with himself, and they would haul the recycled material to Marble Falls. The City of Bertram would reimburse them for gas. Now the recycling plant averages an income of about $200 every 5 weeks, which covers their reimbursement of gas for the volunteers that haul the material and purchasing their trash bags.
However, the recycling plant is not without it's tribulations. Someone will take all the aluminum cans, that the volunteers have sacked. The cans are how the recycling center makes their money to pay for the recycling. Ken has to sack all the aluminum cans and haul them to his house for storage. Then once a month when they are ready to haul them to Marble Falls, he reloads the cans and makes several trips to the recycling center.
The current volunteers at the recycling center are:
David Visser - works Tuesday and Thursday
(hauls the metal)
Ken Odiorne - works Monday - Friday
Chuck Orr - hauls off plastic
The recycling center saves you $4.00 per month on your
garbage bill. The City of Bertram would have to pay Clawson for a recycling service.
