CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The new director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority knows it may take some time to get county residents recycling as much as they used to.

Members of the solid waste authority's board of directors voted to hire James Young at a meeting Tuesday. Young will take over April 2.

"He was the best candidate out of 16 people we looked at," said board member Rod Watkins. "His main goal is going to be to educate and promote recycling in our area."

Young, 27, has a degree in political science from Marshall University with an emphasis on public administration and a Master's degree in city management from East Tennessee University. He will be making $45,000 a year.

The solid waste authority has been without a full-time director since former director Norm Steenstra resigned in September. Interim director Jeannie Gunter will be business manager for the solid waste authority.

Kanawha County's recycling program was all but crippled last March when the solid waste board voted to shut down the Slack Street recycling center because of safety concerns. They later reopened as a drop-off point, but the amount of materials brought to the center plummeted. Solid waste officials also dropped picking up office paper from state government offices as revenue dried up.

The solid waste authority was losing $30,000 a month during the height of the crisis. The solid waste board recently voted to enter a lease agreement with a private company, West Virginia Recycling Services, to collect and sell recyclables.

But with recycling hobbled for a year, many county residents got out of the habit of recycling. Young conceded it would be a tough job to get the program back up to previous levels.

"I've heard that a lot, too," he said. "A lot of people would recycle, but the opportunities are not what they used to be."

West Virginia Recycling Services owner George Hunyadi estimates it will take about 800 to 1,000 tons of recycling a month to make the recycling program profitable. In its heyday, the Slack Street center was bringing in about 600 tons monthly.

"We're definitely lacking as far as the amount of recycling we do," Young said.. He said an aggressive education campaign will be needed to bring up the county's recycling tonnages.

He plans to work closely with local schools and businesses. "It's a subject I'm very passionate about," he said.

Solid waste officials also have a new office, where they held their first meeting. The solid waste authority had been meeting in a cramped trailer at the Slack Street site, but recently leased a third-floor office at 210 Brooks St.

Reach Rusty Marks at rustyma...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1215.