DUNLAP, Tenn. — A $22,000 cardboard compactor is the latest improvement in Sequatchie County’s growing recycling program.

The new compactor already has kept 1,600 pounds of cardboard out of the landfill since it was installed a couple of weeks ago at the Southend Recycling Center, County Executive Michael Hudson said. The center is next door to the John Griswold Recreational Complex.

“We have one cardboard recycling container at the county’s site in the city (on Main Street). This adds an additional cardboard compactor for the county,” he said.

County convenience centers with some recycling services are near Walden on Signal Mountain, on Cagle Mountain and on Lewis Chapel Mountain. Only the two busiest near town are the drop-off points for cardboard, he said.

The county’s cost reimbursed by a $22,000 grant through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, records show.

Recycling means real savings in landfill costs, said County Commissioner David Cartwright, who serves a district in south Sequatchie County.

“Garbage is nothing but cost,” he said.

Sequatchie garbage goes to Marion County, which charges a per-ton fee, he said.

The compactor generates a little revenue and keeps cardboard out of the landfill, he said. “That’s a plus.”

Mr. Hudson said the recycling program has grown in the last year..

“We’re now running two sanitation trucks and we’ve secured three new garbage containers,” he said.

“Citizens can bring used oil; all five centers have oil recycling, now,” he said.

The centers also take metals and newspaper, he said.