And the cost? That’s where recycling becomes important — or it should become important — to county taxpayers. The expansion cost $4 million and that was $800,000 under budget because of lower than expected bids in the shaky economy. “Cell C,” as the expansion area is known, is expected to last between eight and 10 years.

Sheldon Cash, the county’s solid waste manager, said DEQ officials are putting the “finishing touches” on the expansion area in preparation for issuing the final certificate for operation. He hopes that will come by next spring when the new section can begin receiving solid waste from the county’s residences and businesses.

Despite the need for new landfill space, Cash said the flow of waste into the landfill has stabilized in recent years. It actually has decreased this past year, he said, another factor of the economy’s impact on development.

“We don’t see the construction waste we used to and our recycling program is growing, which is a good thing.”

Most of the solid waste that ends up in the landfill is residential waste that comes from 25 solid waste disposal centers spread across the county. Two of those centers, the ones at Forest and Goode, were expanded recently. Cash said the Forest center is by far the busiest in the county with more than double the volume of the next busiest one in Chamblissburg

Residential waste forms the most substantial connection between recycling and the new landfill space. For those county residents who have been out of the country for the past decade or more, recycling saves space in the landfill. Recycling newspapers, plastic containers, aluminum and tin cans and glass not only makes new use of those materials, it saves space in the landfill.

And that landfill space, as the county and other localities in Central Virginia know, is valuable. Recycling that half-gallon plastic jug that once contained orange juice, for example, makes room for other solid waste that cannot be recycled. Furthermore, turning that used plastic jug into a new container saves energy and raw materials, making recycling even more important — and valuable.

Bedford residents are already doing a decent job with recycling, especially compared with those in other localities around the state. According to the most recent Virginia Annual Recycling Rate Report, Bedford County’s recycling rate was 43.3 percent, which is nearly 5 percent higher than the state average. The rate is also nearly 18 percent higher than the state required recycling goal of 25 percent.

Translated into numbers, that means Bedford residents recycled nearly 29,000 tons of recyclable materials, including paper, metal, plastic, glass and electronic items in 2008.

So state figures show that Bedford residents and officials managing the solid waste disposal system are doing a good job of recycling. But they can do better. And if any of them needs a fresh incentive to recycle those cans and bottles and plastic jugs, consider the $4 million the county has laid out for that landfill expansion.