Wytheville

Radford to Lexington

Yesterday before we got to Radford, I stopped in Wytheville, where I spoke with a woman named Donna, who is the Deputy Clerk for the Building, Engineering, and Public Works Department.  When I introduced myself and told her about my project, she stared at me in disbelief.  “A college student did you say you were?”  She asked.  “You don’t look a day out of high school.”  I’m 21 and going to be a senior in college in a little over a month.  I’ll take that comment to mean I’m going to age well.

Wytheville city hall.

Despite Donna’s initial comment, she was actually very helpful.  Wytheville doesn’t provide recycling collection to its residents, but they have a drop off point near city hall.  They also have yard waste pickup once a month, and the waste management team brings the brush to a burn site.  The town doesn’t have a formal compost program, but they strongly encourage their residents to compost.  The Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension Office in town educates residents on how to compost.  While Donna herself doesn’t participate in the practice of compost, she deals with her food waste in a different way: by feeding it to her chickens or dogs.