Despite a nationwide economic slump, the industry of turning trash into treasure has room to grow.

According to a report released earlier this year from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, recycling jobs increased in 2010 and employment has grown for the last 17 years.

Muriel Williman, education and outreach coordinator for the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department, said the expansion of several area recycling businesses puts Orange County on track with the statewide trend.

“Recycling is the one industry where jobs have been increasing over the past few years,” she said.

Williman said companies finding it too costly to buy natural materials are turning to collected recyclables — which are obtained by intermediaries like the recycling department — as a much less expensive alternative.

“Besides the difficulty in obtaining the actual natural materials, you have to consider the energy spent turning them into products,” she said.

County Solid Waste Planner Blair Pollock, who started the county’s recycling program more than a decade ago, said the products the county collects are becoming more valuable.

“As oil gets more expensive, it drives the price of products made from virgin stock up and so the cheaper recyclables become more popular,” Pollock said.

When it began, the county’s recycling program consisted of newspaper home collection and five drop-off sites where residents could bring glass bottles and cans.

Pollock said the department has since built its own facility, added collectible materials including computers, electronics and vegetable oil and expanded its business contracts.

Williman said this expansion of the county’s programs shows the recycling industry’s possibilities.

“Orange County is in the top four in the state as far as comprehensive recycling programs go, even though we’re also one of the smallest counties,” she said.

The report released by the state indicated that recycling across North Carolina is a growing sector. The number of private sector recycling jobs has increased 4.8 percent to 15,200 since 2008, and 48 percent of recycling businesses anticipate adding more jobs in the next two years.

County Solid Waste Management Director Gayle Wilson said public sector jobs in recycling, which were not counted in the report, are also a big factor.

Orange County has experienced budget cuts in all departments recently, but Wilson said the solid waste department has not had to make staff cuts yet.

Williman said she sees the possibilities in the recycling industry only continuing to expand.

“The public might understand the environmental consequences of recycling, but by and large people don’t really think about the economic value of recycling,” she said. “This feeds industry.”

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