BOTETOURT – The company that has contracted to handle Roanoke City’s residential recyclables wants to open its recycling operation in the O’Neal Steel building in Botetourt Industrial Park.
Third Capital Inc./Recycling and Disposal Solutions of Virginia (RDS) has contracted to purchase the O’Neal Steel plant near the end of Industrial Drive if county officials approve a special exceptions permit and zoning ordinance text amendment that would allow for a recycling drop off and processing center. The property is about one-half mile off US 11 behind the Pepsi plant south of Cloverdale.
Jayceej Ventures LLC, described as an absentee investor/owner, now owns the O’Neal Steel building. Jayceej Ventures bought the building and 20 acres for just over $2 million in December, according to Botetourt County real estate records.
Jayceej Ventures has filed for the special exceptions permit (SEP) and zoning code text amendment as a condition of the sale to RDS.
The property is zoned Industrial M-3, but the Botetourt County zoning ordinance does not have provisions for a recycling drop off and processing center so the special exceptions permit and text amendment have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors before the center could open.
The Botetourt Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors have scheduled public hearings on the request. The planners meet Monday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. and the supervisors are scheduled to consider the planners’ recommendation and hold their public hearing on the request Tuesday, Jan. 26.
According to the SEP application, RDS has been selected by the City of Roanoke to process the recyclable material collected by city vehicles. The material will consist of paper, plastic, metal and glass.
RDS also would like to recycle wood waste, electronics and clean aggregates (rock, soil, blocks—material that comes primarily from new construction sites).
RDS says in the application it does not accept waste that is “putrescible in nature” (waste that can decompose or cause odor).
RDS would not accept any type of hazardous or medical waste, the application says, or anything that can be a hazard to health.
The application says because of the type of materials it would receive, and because the entire operation, including material storage, would be inside the 180,000-square-foot building, there will be no odor detectable outside of the building. The company also said there would be little if any noise heard outside of the building.
The company’s design for the facility calls for having trucks enter the facility, drive onto a scale for weight, then drive completely into the facility to discharge material for recycling.
The company expects to receive trucks Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., although there may be times when vehicles arrive outside of these hours, but they don’t expect that to be common. RDS does not expect to receive trucks on Sundays.
According to the application, Roanoke City collection vehicles will take recyclables to the processing center where it would be separated and processed for shipment. RDS would send the material to end users that would ultimately recycle it into new products.
RDS said it will “look to grow our business by providing recycling services to other industrial, commercial and residential customers.”
RDS currently has a facility in the Hampton Roads region, according to the SEP application.
Initially, RDS expects to receive up to 10 trucks a day bringing material and two trucks a day taking material out to be recycled by the end of the first year.
Within five years, the company hopes to have an estimated 30 trucks a day bringing material in and six trucks a day taking material out.
At start up, RDS expects to have three to five employees.
The company’s management team has operated recycling centers that have employed as many as 60 people, but RDS said in the SEP application that it’s hard to determine when or if it will ever have that many employees here.
The property is bordered on three sites by other industrial sites—Metalsa and Lanford Brothers to the north and west, and P.A. Short Distributing to the south across Industrial Drive. Norfolk Southern Railway borders the eastern side of the property, and on the other side of the railroad tracks is Altamira Subdivision.
In its Background Report, the Botetourt Planning and Zoning staff recommends the SEP include proffers that there be no exterior storage on the grounds, no inoperable vehicles or appliances stored on the property and that some existing non-compliant exterior lighting fixtures (which are not being used) be removed or replaced.
O’Neal Steel announced in the spring that it was closing its Botetourt welding operation that employed about 115 people. The plant made parts for Freight Car America, which also announced in the spring it was closing its Roanoke plant.
