Developers hope another vacant building will be bustling once again along Route 50 in Glenville.
The former home of the Economy Transmission auto shop is adjacent to Pizza Hut and across the street from Price Chopper, and is also in the early stages of becoming a redemption center. The recycling facility is planned to accept any aluminum cans and plastic and glass bottles with a deposit fee.
The Glenville Environmental Conservation Commission reviewed the site plan on Monday, Nov. 28.
The commission ruled that the project would not have any adverse environmental impacts and recommended the Glenville Planning and Zoning to approve its environmental review. The approval was dependent on Town Building Inspector Paul Borisenko finding the floor vents properly closed.
“Our goal is a large quantity of bottles and cans and we are really aiming toward making it easy and convenient for the customer,” said Sean Dropchinski, a member of the team looking to build the redemption center. “In New York State, recycling is continuously growing.”
Design Consultant Frank Herba also added the facility will be better than redemption machines at grocery stores, because people will be able to drop off a large bag and not handle the cans one by one. Everything will be hand counted and sorted.
“It is really more of a convenience for the retail user, because they don’t have to stand in front of a machine and knock bottles in and wait for the thing to ring and ding,” said Herba.
Dropchinski also said grocery stores only accept bottles and cans if they sell the product in the store, which can be an inconvenience.
The tentative name for the business is “Creating Change,” focusing on the green aspect of recycling returnable cans and bottles as well as the money that can be returned to the consumer. It is planned to open by next spring if the town approval process goes smoothly. Renovations and remodeling on the outside and inside of the building are planned, too.
The bottles are planned to be stored in the basement of the building, but the main concern expressed by the commission was possible runoff from remaining fluid in redeemed cans, which could go into the floor drains.
“The only floor drain they had in the building was what was a car wash at one time,” said Herba. “The floor drain that was there, that was a self contained car wash.”
Fluid from the car wash would go through the drain to a container outside and then possibly be reused, said Herba. He said all the floor drains had been blocked off and the container has also been removed.
Commission member Kurt Semon said the center could end up seeing a lot of volume and from talking to a previous redemption center owner, he said cleanliness could become an issue. The hopeful business owners assured the commission the site would remain clean, but it would to be incumbent on people redeeming the cans and bottles to clean them out.
“I think this could actually be successful,” said Semon.
