Stephen Haynes (left) of Hybridge Communications Management Group in Charleston talks with Norm Steenstra about recycling computers at the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority's new electronics drop-off recycling shed behind them,

"It's not pretty," says Steenstra of the stacks of paper being readied for recycling and sale. But it keeps the waste out of landfills, and cardboard recycling especially helps the center stay in the black, he says.

These guys on the sorting line are the hidden helpers of area recycling as they separate out all the usable from unusable items that people deposit in the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority blue bins outside.

It may look like a garbage pile, but more than 90 percent of the stuff dropped off at the Slack Street facility gets recycled or reused as these bags await sorting.