Recycling availability is on the way to two Warren County parks after the Warren Fiscal Court recently approved a 12-month agreement with Ohio-based O-I Glass to provide glass recycling at Basil Griffin and Ephram White Parks.

Chris Kummer, head of Warren County Parks and Recreation, said the partnership has been in the works for around six months and will fire up in about 60 days. The agreement comes at no cost to the county.

“Hopefully, if everything goes well in the first year, that’s going to be something that we can renew,” Kummer said.

Recycling services were present at county parks in the past, Kummer said, but the service suffered from misuse. He said the recycling sites became similar to “dump areas,” which inflicted detrimental effects on the park properties.

“They were not being used correctly,” Kummer said. “Enforcement was a challenge.”

Under the new agreement, only glass recyclables will be accepted at the drop-off sites. Kummer said the drop-off bins are designed to only accept certain bottle shapes and the bins will be placed in “high visibility areas” in both parks — near Ephram White Park’s senior center and gymnasium, and near administrative offices at Basil Griffin.

“We feel it’s a really good strategic spot for us to kind of police it a little bit better, keep it clean, and then work with O-I just to make sure that the proper products are put in there,” Kummer said.

O-I’s presence in Warren County is not limited to this effort. Last year, the company announced a development in the Kentucky Transpark which will employ up to 140 people.

The agreement is under an O-I program called “Glass4Good,” which involves partnering with local nonprofits. For this agreement, O-I has partnered with United Way of Southern Kentucky, which will be the primary beneficiary for revenue from recycling.

Kummer said neither the county nor his department will receive any financial benefit from the agreement.

“From the Parks Department side, what we’re kind of looking at is this is a service that’s provided through this partnership,” Kummer said. “United Way will be a beneficiary of a certain percentage of the return from the recycling process, and then they have the means to directly put those funds into our local community.”

The 12-month agreement is renewable. Kummer said if the first year is successful an expansion to other parks is possible, and several other locations have been discussed for future sites.

“Hopefully, this is going to be a long-term partnership and these containers in this program hopefully will be around for a long time,” he said. “As our community continues to grow, I think we’ll be able to jointly provide these types of services.”

Kummer said on WCPR’s side, the sites are “ready to go.” Once the bins arrive, information about the service will be shared on the department’s social media.